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V THE 





TREE OE LIFE ; 



OR, 



HUMAN DEGENERACY: 



ITS NATURE AND REMEDY, 



AS BASED ON THE ELEVATING PRINCIPLE OP ORTHOPATHY. 



IN" TWO PAETS. 



Get wisdom : and with all your getting get understanding. — Prov. Iv. 7. 



By ISAAC JENNINGS, M. D. 

. 1S87 

NEW YOKE: 
MILLER, WOOD & CO., PUBLISHERS, 

No. 15 LAIGHI STREET. 
1867. 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 

MILLER, WOOD & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



D. H. PRIME, PRINTER, 15 LAIGHT STREET, NEW YORK. 



PEEFAOE, 



!bt the Preface to my " Philosophy of Human Life" I an- 
nounced it as my intention, at some future convenient time, 
to publish "a small treatise on the treatment of human life 
on Orthopathic principles." 

That intention included only a design to give directions for 
the treatment of human physical life. But I became satis- 
fied that it would be of but small advantage to endeavor to 
patchmp the bodily ills of man, while his spirit, which in- 
habits and controls the body, was itself wofully disordered. 

This thought was the foundation of the conception am" 
plan of making a treatise on Human Degeneracy — spiritual 
and physical — its nature and remedy. 

Not long after I had become established in the belief that 
medicine was a gross delusion, I was driven to the conviction 
that religion, as held and practiced by the Churches, was also, 
much of it, a delusion. The following narrative will show 
the origin and ground of this conviction, and indicate some- 
thing of the nature of the delusion. In 1828, the Churches 
in Fairfield, New Haven, and Litchfield Counties, Conn., and 
adjacent places, enjoyed an unusual season of religious 

(iii) 



iv TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

awakening. The Congregational and Methodist Churches in 
Derby — one in heart and effort — shared largely in the re- 
freshing. At that time what was called " Conference of the 
Churches' ' was held weekly, by alternation, in the parishes 
for a considerable distance around in that section of the 
country, composed of delegates from individual churches. 
The business of the Conference was to hear reports from the 
several churches, address different classes of persons present 
at a general gathering, assist in settling difficulties in 
churches where any existed, and, in general, devise means 
for the promotion of religion in the churches. I attended a 
meeting of the Conference in Fairfield, my native place, as 
delegate from the Congregational Church in Derby. In giv- 
ing in an account of the state of religion in Derby, I told 
the crowded and listening audience that Derby had reached 
a point in the revival from which she would not decline, but 
would press forward in the cause of the Eedeemer, un±il ev- 
ery soul in the place was brought into the kingdom of Ira- 
manuel. I could not understand why it should be otherwise. 
The Saviour was in earnest to have all come to repentance, 
and all impenitent persons were in perishing need of repent- 
ance and salvation. It is true, there had been two or three 
revivals there before within a few years, followed by declen- 
sions. But at this time the most prominent leading men had 
been subjects of the revival; all opposition was silenced; 
there was a general activity among Christians ; sinners, hard- 
ened sinners, were generally disposed to admit the justice and 
benevolent nature of the claims of the Gospel upon them, 
and were steadily, in goodly numbers, yielding to these 



PREFACE. 



claims. One wretched, impenitent man, a ship carpenter, 
came into Derby from Milford with the doleful lamentation 
that religion had waxed too hot for him in Milford, and he 
could stand it there no longer. The poor man soon found 
that religion was too hot for him in Derby to stand it com- 
fortably in his rebellious attitude, and bowed to the call of 
the Saviour. But notwithstanding these favorable and 
urgent circumstances, in less than six months Derby was a 
spiritual iceberg. Most of those who had been all absorbed in 
the work of saving souls " went their ways, one to his farm, 
and another to his merchandise." The general weekly prayer- 
meeting was deserted by the male members of the Church, 
with the exception of some half-dozen who still continued 
to be punctual in their attendance. Worldliness and vanity 
again prevailed. The declension was rapid and fearful. As 
I witnessed its progress, I was led to inquire why such sad 
issues should always await revivals of religion, God is stable, 
he changes not ; his ways are equal. There must be a viola- 
tion of some fundamental principle of God's moral govern- 
ment by the Church, else there would be uniform and speedy 
progress in the work of converting the world. Before the 
declension was complete, I called upon a warm-hearted Chris- 
tian brother, whose presence and voice still continued to ani- 
mate and encourage the waning prayer-meeting. I found 
him wondering why revivals of religion should ever be suf- 
fered to decline and stop, while a necessity for them con- 
tinued. Presently a lad came in and handed him a paper. 
He read it, sighed, and handed it to me. It was a store bill 
for goods, amounting to about fifty dollars, requesting imrue< 



Vi TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

diate payment. Among the articles enumerated were cloth 
and trimmings for two or three silk dresses. The brother 
made some remarks indicative of perplexity in the case, to 
which his wife replied, " Why, my dear, we must have 
clothes." 

This brother was now numbered among the absentees from 
the prayer-meeting. He was a mechanic, with a large family 
depending on his daily labor for support. While he had 
been devoting a portion of his time to visiting and other la- 
bor for the promotion of the revival, his financial matters had 
suffered, and he must now apply himself to his work until 
he is too much exhausted in body and spirit for profitable at- 
tendance upon a prayer-meeting, or other revival duties. 

I had now got a clue to my difficulty, and no longer won- 
dered why revivals of religion were short-lived. I learned, too, 
where the largest portion of the blame belongs. The half- 
dozen who were constant in their attendance upon the prayer- 
meeting, who were grieved at the absence of others who had 
been accustomed to meet with them, were themselves the un- 
intentional occasion of the absence. They were so pecu- 
niarily circumstanced that they could live in some style, and 
at the same time engage in revival efforts and enjoy them the 
year round, without feeling it in their pockets. As they were 
the leading families in the place, it was natural and praise- 
worthy for other families to try to imitate their example, at 
the cost of leisure for even religious purposes — that is, if their 
example was good ; and leading families should be careful to 
set no other than good examples. If there is intrinsic value 
in a silk dress sufficient to outweigh the good that might be 



PREFACE. vii 



done by the excess of its cost over a plain substantial dress 
in feeding the hungry and sending the Gospel to the destitute, 
or for the bestowment of labor for the salvation of souls, 
then mechanics and farmers, as well as ministers, lawyers, 
and doctors, and merchants, should withhold their charitable 
contributions and missionary labors, until their wives and 
daughters are alike provided with silk dresses. And so with 
all other parts and portions of style. The discovery that I 
had made led me to thorough self-examination. I wanted to 
know whether I was blocking revival wheels by setting an 
example to my brethren in other callings, that they could not 
copy without being so cramped in their financial affairs as to 
be unfitted for social and religious privileges and duties. I 
was told that my income would justify my style of living, 
and that my position in society demanded it. This was not 
satisfactory to me. I was not my own, but had been bought 
with a price. My Purchaser, Redeemer, and kind Master, 
had given me to understand that unless I forsook all that I 
had, in the consecration of myself and possessions to his 
service, I need not reckon myself his disciple. And he had 
given me a plain, unmistakable example of what I should 
do to others, in a personal transaction with his disciples, as re- 
corded in the thirteenth chapter of John. And I felt that it 
was " enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and 
the servant as his Lord." I was not indulging in what the 
popular sentiment would deem extravagance in any respect. 
Yet I found on careful examination, that I was expending 
more on myself and family than was necessary for our health 
and comfort, or than should be meet to answer the demands 



viii THE TREE OF LIFE. 

of a reasonable Christian public sentiment. I believed that 
my Saviour would be more honored and better pleased by my 
doing more for the advancement of his kingdom in the world, 
and less for myself, than I was doing. My wife united cor- 
dially with me in my views and their resulting action. We 
commenced a systematic course of retrenchment. I changed 
my style of dress to the saving of a number of dollars in a 
single suit of clothes. I dispensed with a rather expensive 
carriage that we had no special need of, etc. etc. I laid my 
views before the Church as I could get their ear, without being 
too obtrusive or repulsive. I told the brethren that we need 
not expect a continuous and triumphant revival, without we 
prepared ourselves for it by laying aside every weight that 
could retard our progress, and getting well armed, equipped 
and provisioned, so that we could hold out in a contest with 
the powers of darkness as long as they could. I was not 
successful with the Church — the leading portion of it. They 
thought my notions and plans would succeed very well in the 
millennium, but were impracticable then. But how were 
we to have a millennium without living it ? I succeeded in 
forming a small retrenchment association, which promised 
well for a while ; but the popular current set too strong 
against it, and finally swept it away. I became settled in 
the belief that the Church would never achieve the conquest 
of the world, until she cordially embraced and persistently 
carried into effect the undivided inheritance principle. The 
Christian brotherhood should be one with Christ as he is one 
with the Father, and should concentrate and exert all their 
influence from whatever source it may be derived, upon ef- 



PREFACE. ix 



forts for rescuing their race from the ruins of the Fall, as 
their first chief end. 

I was watching the openings of Providence, expecting to 
find some indication of a disposition on the part of some por- 
tion of Christ's disciples to elevate the standard of piety, 
when I saw in The New York Evangelist, notice of a small 
colony of earnest Christians having just been planted in the 
State of Ohio, in a place to which they gave the name of 
Oberlin. As I had opportunity, I made strict inquiry with 
regard to this little settlement, and was pleased with the 
responses which I obtained. In the spring of 1837, I visited 
Oberlin, four years after the first tree was cut in the place. 
I found there much to admire beside evidence of thrift and 
outward prosperity. There was decidedly an elevated tone of 
piety, manifest in substantial acts of kindness toward each 
other, and toward all men. Their charity toward each other 
abounded, and they were ready for every good work. 
At that time the settlement was composed wholly of choice 
Christian families from the New England States — mostly from 
Vermont and Massachusetts — descendants of a noble puritanic 
ancestry. Their chief object in selecting a secluded spot for 
the scene of their future labors, was to free Christianity from 
some of its dross of worldliness, that its light might shine with 
greater brilliancy, and be more effective in the accomplish- 
ment of its grand mission in the world. I felt strongly in- 
clined to cast in my lot with them, and to this end held long 
conferences with the Eev. John J. Shipherd, one cf the 
founders of the colony ; the other one, Mr. P. P. Stewart, 

had retired from the settlement. My only difficulty was with 
1* 



THE TREE OF LIFE. 



the first clause of the third article of their " Covenant." The 
whole article stands thus : 

u Art. 3. We will hold and manage our estates personally, 
but pledge as perfect a community of interest, as though we 
held a community of property." 

Mr. Shipherd agreed with me in the opinion that Christians 
should have no separate interests ; and hoped that the experi- 
ment which they were then making would issue in the rejec- 
tion of the separate interest principle from their covenant, 
their hearts, and their lives. They were then practicing sub- 
stantially on the community of goods principle. They seemed 
to love each other as they loved themselves, and were ready 
to part with any thing they had, time, service, or property, 
when and where necessity called for their aid. I assured Mr. 
Shipherd that it was perfectly idle to think of having the 
selfish principle work itself out of existence, or of its being 
worked out where it is made a basis of action. It is one of 
the fundamental pillars, and the most substantial one in 
Satan's kingdom ; and wherever it is admitted as a legitimate 
moral element, or normal constituent in the social compact, it 
will be sure to show the cloven foot, magnify itself and pro- 
duce its own fruit, " lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the 
pride of life," with all their accompanying abominations. 

Let the Canada thistle or the white daisy get well rooted 
in your meadow, and among the rules of husbandry by which 
your farmers are to be governed, make an article to the effect 
that these pests of grass are not to be extirpated, and you 
may pledge the timothy and clover as strongly as you please, 



PREFACE. 



that they shall have as much freedom of growth as if they 
had the whole meadow to themselves, and they will be sure 
to get a terrible choking by their vile neighbors. 

Let Oberlin continue to be based upon the principle of 
having every man hold and manage an estate personally, in 
his own exclusive right, no matter what he is pledged to or 
what his present practice may be, and the selfish principle 
will work itself into gigantic proportions in spite of all op- 
position. The people of Oberlin will fall back to the common 
standard of worldly Christianity, in amassing and using prop- 
erty for the unhallowed purpose of self-aggrandizement ; and 
there is no power on earth or in heaven that can prevent it, 
unless the Almighty shall see fit to modify or override an es- 
tablished law, 

I proposed to Mr. Shipherd that he and I should unite our 
property and activities on the true Gospel community prin- 
ciple, and show to Oberlin that there was a more excellent 
way of realizing the highest well-being and happiness of a 
community than by acting on the disjointed, discordant and 
debasing principle and plan of selfishness. Mr. Shipherd ac- 
cepted my proposition. The necessary documents were drawn 
up, signed and sealed, and the little community commenced 
operations. We had not advanced far before we found that 
there were sharp points that would be likely to make ugly 
sores, if we were to continue to revolve in close proximity 
around each other, and we separated. This did not weaken 
my confidence in the correctness of my views of the Chris- 
tian equality principle ; it only served to confirm the truth 
of the old adage, u It is hard to learn old dogs new tricks;" 



xii TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

and to convince me that for the breaking up of old rotten 
foundations and establishing new ones on solid bottom, de- 
pendence must be made mainly upon coming generations. 
The separate interest or selfish principle, general stimulation, 
and depraved sexuality, constitute the Satanic trio or wand by 
which he governs the human family. But strong as the 
power is which Satan derives from this triple human de- 
pravity, it will yet be broken ; for there is a stronger than 
he. Heaven will suffer violence, and the violent may take it 
by force, with all its unbounded blessings. But at present 
the difficulty consists in an inability to concentrate a sufficient 
amount of force of the right description at the points where 
the enemy is the most effectually intrenched, directly in the 
only passage-way to pure, unalloyed, heavenly felicity, and 
there " break through the thick array of his thronged legions 
and charge home upon him;" and thus " reach his heart and 
free the world from bondage." 

There is no difficulty in collecting any amount of means for 
building splendid church edifices, colleges, ladies boarding- 
halls, and private Christian palaces, which strengthen rather 
than weaken Satan's kingdom. But let an attempt be made 
to inaugurate a psychological, physiological, or ethical reform 
that would strike directly at the foundation of Satan's king- 
dom, and but few are found ready to engage in it. If no 
other argument can be brought against the proposed reform, 
the trite one is always ready : " The thing is impracticable." 
But " truth is mighty and will prevail." It is gradually 
working its way into popular favor, " through much tribula- 
tion," in breaking up old foundations, and in the laying of 



PREFACE. 



Tin 



new and better ones ; and it will eventually destroy the em- 
pire of darkness, and establish the kingdom of righteousness 
and peace. 

In the following " Tbee or Life," I have endeavored to 
give a faithful delineation of the nature of human degen- 
eracy, spiritual and physical, together with its remedy, as the 
whole matter lies in my mind. In doing this, I have used 
plainness of speech ; and perhaps in some regards it may be 
thought that I have been too pointed, personal, and arbitrary 
in my remarks. My apology is, that I felt constrained from 
a sense of duty, in view of the importance of the subjects 
under consideration, to deal plainly in respect to them. In 
all that I have written my aim has been to subserve the 
public weal — the welfare of the great republic of the world, 
in reference to its grand millennial future. And I can say 
in all good conscience, in the words of the truly noble Dr. 
Rush, " I am in pursuit of Truth, and care not whither I am 
led, if she is but my leader." It will not be presumed, I trust, 
that I deem myself infallible on any subject. Entertaining, 
as I do, a profound conviction that our whole race, the 
highest and best, as well as the lowest and vilest of it, is yet 
merged in a distorting medium rife with the spirit of hal- 
lucination, whereby the mental vision is fearfully liable to be 
beguiled into imperfect and false views of truth and duty, it 
would be the height of arrogance in me to make myself an 
exception to this universal postulate. It will be strange, in- 
deed, if I have not committed many errors, more or less serious, 
in traversing the extensive unbeaten, if not unexplored, track 
over which I have passed. Yet I am half inclined to believe 



xiv THE TREE OF LIFE. 

that none of the fundamental principles which I have brought 
to notice will be found to be unsound, or that many of the 
minor positions will prove to be untenable. And now, " with 
malice for none, and charity for all," I commend the careful 
reading of the book to the earnest inquirers after truth, in 
the hope that it may contribute something toward hastening 
the " good time coming." 

I. J. 

Obeblln, Ohio, April, 1867. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

PREFACE iii 

TABLE OE CONTENTS xv 



PAET I. 

MAN'S SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY— ITS NATIVE AND REMEDY. 

CHAPTER I. 

Status of the Three Parties Concerned in Man's Degeneracy and its Final Issue. . 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Physical Depravity Accessory to Spiritual Degeneracy 28 

CHAPTER III. 

Physiological and Psychological Reform a Necessity of the Times 39 

CHAPTER IY. 
Remedy for Man's Spiritual Degeneracy 57 

CHAPTER Y. 
Opposing Influences 69 

CHAPTER YI. 
Final Issue 76 

PAET II. 

MAN'S PHYSICAL DEGENERACY— ITS NATURE AND REMEDY. 

CHAPTER I. 
Constitution of Human Physical Life 93 

(xv) 



xvi THE TREE OF LIFE. 

CHAPTER II. 
Vital Economy, or Organic Laws of Life 107 

CHAPTER III. 

Source and Mode of Transmission of the Principle of Human Physical Life 110 

CHAPTER IV. 
Man's Physical Degeneracy 114 

CHAPTER V, 
Predisposition to Disease 128 

CHAPTER VI. 
Hereditary Diseases 130 

CHAPTER VII. 

Mode of Renovation of Impaired and Eeeble "Vital Machinery 135 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Analysis of a Few of the Most Prominent Symptoms of Disease 139 

CHAPTER IX. 
Law of Contagion and General Causation 150 

CHAPTER X. 
Medical Delusion 164 

CHAPTER XI, 
Remedy for Man's Physical Degeneracy 183 

CHAPTER XII. 

An Episode— Appeal to the Reason and Common Sense of Non- Medical Readers. . 202 

CHAPTER XIII. 
General Directions Resumed 217 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Specific Directions — Croup — Dysentery— Cholera 233 

CHAPTER XV. 

Pinal and Effectual Remedy for Man's Physical Degeneracy 246 

CHAPTER XVI 
An Allegory- Conclusion •. 265 



THE TREE OF LIFE. 



PART FIRST. 



1LAX"S SPIRITUAL DLGEXEEACT. 



(9) 



CHAPTEE I. 

MAN'S SPIEITUAL DEGENEEACY — ITS NATTJEE 
AND EEMEDY. 

Man by creation is a unit. Though constituted of flesh 
and spirit, these, in their normal state, are so intimately 
blended in their connection with and their action and reac- 
tion upon each other, that whatever seriously affects the con- 
dition of one will influence more or less the condition of the 
other. In a perfect state, the body and mind will reciprocally 
support and aid each other in the maintenance of the glorious, 
happy condition which it was the original design and is now 
the desire of his Creator that he should enjoy ; while, in the 
present apostate state of man, " The flesh lusteth against the 
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ; and these are con- 
trary, the one to the other. " The nature of this degeneracy 
and its remedy is my theme. 

First, with regard to the spirit. " God made man upright," 
with perfect adaptation and strong tendency in every depart- 
ment of his being to the subserviency and maintenance of 
his erect and happy position, so long as the divinely consti- 
tuted union between man and his Maker continued undis- 
turbed. The sundering of this union " brought death into 
the world and all our woe." " Our first parents, being left 
to the freedom of their own will," withdrew confidence from 
their Maker and bestowed it upon his and their enemy. 
And from that time to the present the arch Deceiver has held 
sway over the whole race of Adam, in such a sense as justly 
to entitle him to the appellation of "god of this world." 

(11) 



12 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

The reason why the grand adversary should be allowed io 
assail and overreach the first human pair, with their limited 
experience, when such dire consequences were to flow there - 
from, is not to be inquired into by short-sighted mortals. 

" Not Gabriel asks the reason why. 
Nor God the reason gives." 

" Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." 

What is the nature of this estrangement ? In what does 
it consist ? is the first point to be settled. Most manifestly, 
lack of genuine, implicit faith in God, or confidence in his 
word and superintending providence, has ever been the fun- 
damental element in man's degeneracy. And this glaring 
defect in his spiritual nature may well be regarded as the 
great wonder of the world. While frail, erring mortals are 
trusted to an almost unlimited extent, the infinite Jehovah, 
who can not lie or deceive, and whose word can never fail, 
has but slight hold of man's confidence. 

Let a company or government of accredited soundness offer 
ten per cent, interest on loans for any worldly purpose, and 
the desired funds are at once forthcoming ; while the Lord of 
Hosts, whose solvency no one would dare call in question, 
nearly two thousand years ago made a standing offer of one 
hundred per cent, interest for current use, with eternal life 
and endless felicity in reversion, for any amount of means 
that might be advanced to aid in carrying forward his grand 
enterprise for putting down the great Satanic rebellion and 
reconstructing his earthly kingdom, and as yet but a meager 
portion of what is needed for this work has been tendered. 
Implicit confidence in God would and will secure a rapid and 
thorough conversion of the world. The great Deceiver is the 
instigator and promoter of man's infidelity. On seducing 
our first parents from their allegiance to their Maker by base 
and false insinuations, he obtained vantage-ground on which 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. V6 



it lias been easy for him to maintain his usurped dominion 
over the thus fallen race. 



Status of the Three Parties Concerned in Man's Degen- 
eracy, and its Final Issue. 

God, as he justly might have done, never gave man up, 
as a race or family, to irretrievable ruin ; but still " so loved 
the world" that he was willing, at an infinite expense, to 
make ample provision for the complete rescue of all who were 
willing to accept his gracious amnesty on the very reasonable 
condition of repentance and faith, and. subscribe themselves 
by the surname of Israel. On God's part, therefore, every 
obstacle is removed out of the way of the repentant sinner's 
return to the home and bosom of his Father. And there is 
no necessity of being perplexed with theological tenets about 
the precise force and meaning of the atoning sacrifice — how 
and why the obstacles were removed out of the way and 
nailed to the cross. It is enough for us to know that " Christ 
died for our sins, according to the Scriptures." That he 
"was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our 
justification." 

On man's part there is not and never has been a lack of 
constitutional ability to quit the service of Satan and return 
through the opened door to the service of his rightful Lord 
and Master. He exercised perfect freedom of will in chang- 
ing his relation at first, and he still retains that same freedom 
of will to change the relation back again if he pleases. It 
is true that many, if not all of his faculties, mental and phys- 
ical, have been greatly impaired, in consequence of his vile 
and cruel bondage to his present task-master ; but he still has 
the liberty of choice, and can at any time throw off the heavy 
yoke of the Oppressor, and put on the easy yoke of his mer- 
ciful Redeemer. And although he is not able of himself di- 
rectly to recreate or renovate his impaired faculties, he can 



14 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



yield himself to God's control, who will joyfully work in him 
both to will and to do while he works out his own salvation, 
in all needed respects, by obedience to the laws of his being. 
There can be no doubt but that God and man, acting together 
in perfect coalescence of the powers and faculties which they 
conjointly possess, can restore man to perfect soundness. 
What man can not do God can. "While on earth, God, in the 
person of his Son, healed the bodily infirmities and diseases 
of all who made application to him, and at the same time ex- 
ercised confidence in his disposition and ability to help them. 
" According to your faith" was the only condition imposed by 
the merciful and potential physician. Christ has lost none 
of his power or benevolence by ascending to heaven. He is 
still able and willing to save us from all the temporal or 
physical consequences of our sins and follies to the full ex- 
tent of our trust in him. Of moral and spiritual evils we 
must cure ourselves, if we are ever cured. Sin consists in 
the exercise of the voluntary powers in a wrong direction — 
making a wrong choice, violating some principle or rule of 
right. " Sin is a transgression of the law." " Sin is any 
Avant of conformity unto, or transgression of the law of God." 
" The duty which God requires of man is obedience to his 
revealed will." The first step in obedience is belief. " He 
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a 
re warder of those that diligently seek him." God will help 
those who help themselves. I must first put my shoulder to 
the wheel before I cry to Hercules. The voluntary power, 
power of choice, that of which alone moral character is precl- 
icable, is as free as the air we breathe. And this faculty is 
the only part of man that God has seen fit to put beyond his 
immediate control. 

" Yet left me in this dark estate, 
To know the good from ill ; 
And binding nature fast in fate, 
Left free the human will." 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 15 

And nothing but the free will in man has broken away 
from the wholesome restraints of law. His physical system 
still retains its integrity in this respect, and renders perfect 
obedience to law to the full extent of its ability. When crip- 
pled in its energies by excessive abuse, a derangement of its 
action is unavoidable ; but still the tendency of its move- 
ments, all and singular, is to the recovery of its natural, 
healthy condition. 

Let it be kept in mind, then, that the attribute of freedom 
of will, which God bestowed upon man, God has never by 
direct agency altered, trammeled, or in any wise interfered 
with. Whence is it, therefore, that man, for nearly six thou- 
sand years, in his best estate, has remained very far from 
God and satisfactory happiness ? The Father has ever en- 
tertained and cherished an intense desire that his wayward 
children should be restored, " safe and sound," to his kind 
embrace and fellowship, in the full enjoyment of perfect bless- 
edness, and has done all that he wisely could to effect a con- 
summation so devoutly to be wished. 

The children feel a deep sense of their forlornness, have a 
strong constitutional desire for happiness, which they can not 
repress, and though some of them have drunk deep at the 
fountain which has been opened for them, they are only the 
more sensible that there are heights and depths of pleasure 
which they have not reached, which they are confident have 
been provided for them, and after which %ey are panting as 
the hart panteth after the water-brooks. 

A full and satisfactory answer to the foregoing question in- 
volves a lengthy exposition of the status or position held by 
the third party in the three-fold relation now under consider- 
ation — "the wicked one," in whom " the whole world lieth." 
When Satan had secured the fall of our first parents, he made 
it a prime object to envelop them in mists of error and de- 
lusion, until he induced them to reverse the order of things, 
and put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; bitter for 



16 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

sweet, and sweet for bitter ; evil for good, and good for evil ; 
and, through, perversion of their intellectual vision, to beget 
in them a general doubting and disbelief of positive real- 
ities. One of his exploits — and an adroit one it must be — 
has been to beget in the minds of no inconsiderable portion 
of the race a disbelief of his own personality, against an 
overwhelming amount of evidence, internal and external, and 
direct, positive and ample Scripture testimony of his real ex- 
istence. When the Tempter had started the race off with 
the belief that they would not surely die for the awful crime 
of disobedience to a positive divine command, his next effort 
was to root and ground them in the assurance that they 
would, at all events, escape future punishment. True, the 
Saviour had said, " He that believeth not shall be damned;'' 
" These shall go away into everlasting punishment." And 
it is also true that the Bible is full of declarations, warnings 
and admonitions that would seem to confirm the declarations 
of the Saviour and leave no room for doubt respecting the 
endless punishment of the wicked ; yet these are all glosses, 
" glittering generalities," tha-t can easily be explained away. 
And many poor, deluded mortals lay the flattering unction to 
their souls, and vainly flatter themselves that in the future 
world, at least, they will be restored to the divine favor and 
endless, unalloyed happiness, whatever their lives or unhap- 
piness here may be. And all mankind are so much under 
this delusion of the adversary, that none of them are influ- 
enced as they should be in their co-operative efforts to save a 
sin-ruined world, either from a consideration of the awful 
doom of the impenitent or the glorious reward of the right- 
eous. As a general accessory means of reaching and ruining 
the soul, the Devil has placed much reliance on securing a 
dwarfed and depraved condition of the body, and in this bold 
adventure it would seem as if he had succeeded to the utmost 
limits of his wishes. It would not comport with his ambi- 
tious desire of having a large kingdom to reign over, to put 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 17 

the race on a track that would lead to a short, abrupt termi- 
nation of human existence, and he has stopped but a little 
short of this. To notice all the modes and measures which 
he employs for the deterioration and degradation of the di- 
vinely constituted human physical organism would be an end- 
less task. Indeed, it would be difficult to point out a single 
important feature of human life, in what would generally be 
conceded as the best state of society, that is not directly or 
indirectly hostile to the fullest and best development of the 
physical system. 

A few of the most prominent traits and results of his pol- 
icy and practice in degenerating man's spiritual nature may 
profitably be noticed. The first of these, and one that stands 
out in bold relief as an open and flagrant violation of the 
second great command, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself,'' and which is the stock or trunk whence most of the 
abominations of our race take their origin, is the system of 
caste that prevails among all classes and conditions of men 
over the whole earth. It is truly astonishing with what an 
awful horror the arch apostate has imbued the. human mind 
in connection with the idea of a " leveling down" process. 
In the lowest depths of heathenism no one can be found who 
would be willing to be put on a level with one whom he or 
she imagines is occupying a position a little below him or her- 
self. All are intent upon having some variety of wampum, 
or other silly decoration, that shall distinguish them from 
their fellow-worms. 

And as we ascend into civilized and more refined society 
the same eager desire for vainglorious distinction prevails, 
manifested by costly mansions, splendid furniture, elegant 
horses and carriages, rich dresses, etc. 

In discussing the subject of human degeneracy it is import- 
ant to remember that there are two, and but two, great cen- 
tral spirits or agents that control the destinies of meji — God 
in Christ, and Belial. Tor wise reasons, God, the " author 



18 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

and finisher" of all good, saw fit to suffer the procurer of all 
evil in this world to obtain and, for a limited period, bear al- 
most universal sway over Adam's race. To arrive at any 
thing like a just estimate of the nature and degree of degen- 
eracy and misery which sin, under Satanic delusion, has in- 
flicted on this race, we must first ascertain what platform of 
principles was laid down by the Creator for their govern- 
ment ; what, most likely, would have been the general course 
of conduct pursued under implicit obedience to law, and what 
the probable consequences of such obedience. Then we may 
conclude that whatever is found in man that is lovely and of*" 
good report, that is of happy tendency, is "from above, from 
the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither 
shadow of turning;" and that whatever comes short of this 
condition of things is from beneath, from the Father of lies, 
with whom there is as much variableness as there are oppor- 
tunities for deluding and misleading his wretched victims. 

" God is love." Infinitely happy in himself, he desired and 
made provision Tor the happiness of his creatures. He made 
man upright, with large endowments for knowledge and hap- 
piness, on condition of perfect obedience to his revealed will. 
The binding cord was supreme love to God and equal love to 
kindred. Had this cord been kept sound, it is reasonable to 
infer that man would have possessed, in perfect symmetrical 
combination, in his individuality, all the superior, lovely and 
desirable traits of character that have distinguished individ- 
uals in all parts of the world, in all time, very largely ampli- 
fied and embellished. Perfect in beauty of form and fea- 
ture ; infallible in memory and judgment ; faculty of ratio- 
cination intuitive and strong ; good nature and general good 
feeling of the first quality and imperturbable, with all the 
graces of oratory, poetry, song, painting, sculpture, etc. etc. 
In a natural, heaven-ordained state the tendencies would all 
be steadily and strongly upward toward the acme of human 
perfection, with desire and panting for happiness which noth- 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 19 

ing but " fullness of joy" could satisfy. With this, perfect 
contentment would be a fixture. There was originally a 
boundary line in man's constitution that could not be passed, 
and that limit all mankind could and would have attained to. 
Nothing short of it would have satisfied them, and its attain- 
ment would have been easy. " Perfect love," which " cast- 
eth out fear," would have flowed freely from heart to heart, 
including the Father's great heart of love, the source and 
fountain of all blessedness. As " the earth is the Lord's and 
the fullness thereof," and as God " hath made of one blood 
all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth," and 
"is no respecter of persons," there would, of course, be no 
separate interests or exclusive personal rights, but a universal 
conspiring together for the promotion and diffusion of gen- 
eral happiness. Nothing could have exceeded the fervor of 
their mutual love, if no foul fiend had disturbed the natural 
order of things. Happy experience would have confirmed 
an underlying principle of their nature, which makes it 
" more blessed to give than to receive." As the race multi- 
plied and spread over the face of the earth, the equality prin- 
ciple would have gone with them and operated as a powerful 
incentive to the perfection of beauty — "beauty of holiness," 
completeness. Pride, a strong constitutional element of hu- 
manity that can never be repressed, would have magnified it- 
self in a noble and lofty spirit of emulation in self-culture and 
development, for the three-fold purpose of self-happiness, 
good example, and augmentation of the power of usefulness. 
While each and every man would have cherished a desire, 
and labored zealously for his own personal happiness, he 
would have made this desire and effort the standard by which 
to measure his love and labor for the happiness of others. 
" There should be equality." It is the Father's wise and be- 
nevolent enactment. It is the only sure and safe basis of 
prosperity and peace. It is the most simple and economical 
mode of managing a household or a republic. The " one 



20 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

God and Father of all," whose resources are inexhaustible, 
and pledged to meet the full necessities of all who keep his 
commandments, having made it a foundation principle in his 
moral government that his children shall love each other as 
they love themselves, never has suffered and never will suffer 
this enactment to be infringed with impunity. Who but the 
infinite Jehovah can comprehend the length and breadth, 
height and depth of the unhappiness that has flowed through 
a single rill into the vast ocean of human degeneracy, that 
well deserves the name of " pride of life." In virtue of a 
rupture of the second great commandment, the great law of 
brotherly love, the constitutional element of pride, a princi- 
ple that in its normal play would find delight only in restrict- 
ing wants to the sole purpose of rational enjoyment, and in 
keeping the storehouses — public and private — -constantly re- 
plenished with the requisite means of their ample satisfac- 
tion, has been transformed into an ignoble passion for exclu- 
sive self-indulgence and aggrandizement, at the expense or 
in disregard of the convenience, comfort and happiness of 
others. This perverted principle has multiplied wants to an 
unlimited extent — unnatural ones, such as when supplied 
minister only to the depravation of body and mind. And in 
the supply of these artificial wants — which are insatiable and 
imperious in their demands — or in getting the means for 
their gratification, any course and kind of action that is not 
severely censured by a lax public sentiment is deemed hon- 
orable, if the end is only answered — if wealth is secured. 
The conventional rules by which selfish, unrighteous gains 
are acquired and held, are at best only " after the rudiments 
of the world, after the tradition of men, and not after 
Christ." 

" Pride of life" creates, fosters and sustains the gigantic 
system of caste, which, in its ponderous workings and hide- 
ous developments, evolves sleepless vigilance, anxious solici- 
tude, corroding cares, mistrust, jealousy, envy, malice, and 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 21 

every vile and hateful passion. It softens the brain of good 
men — that portion of it which is the seat of the conscience — 
till overreaching seems a commendable virtue ; and they 
find but little difficulty in offering for sale any commodity 
that a vitiated taste — moral and physical — may crave, no 
matter how contraband it may be to individual health or the 
public weal. The inequality principle in full operation is 
simply the "grab game" on a stupendous scale. "Keep 
what you have got, and get what you can," is its catechistic 
" chief end of man." Scramble for place and power is its 
end and aim. And as " filthy lucre" furnishes the ladder by 
which aspirants ascend to a brief pre-eminence where they 
can a little outshine their fellow-worms, this must be amassed 
by some means. And it is proclaimed from the sacred desk 
that " it is not only not blameworthy, but it is praiseworthy, 
to desire and labor for wealth, that it may be poured out like 
water in benevolent causes." 

But how are we to labor for it — as Paul did, "night and 
day" with our own hands ? And to what extent is wealth 
to be poured out like water — till it is exhausted ? What rich 
man ever poured out his wealth in that fashion, except " the 
man Christ Jesus," a few of the primitive Christians, and 
here and there one in later times, as, for instance, the Hev, 
John Wesley — though Wesley did not suffer his wealth 
to accumulate, but let it run out as fast as it came' into 
his hands ? How astonishing that Israel will allow her- 
self to be " blinded in part" by such flimsy delusions of the 
adversary. Churches are laboring hard for the conversion 
of the world, and make but little progress. They seem not 
to be aware that in trying to reconcile Christ and Belial in 
the service of God and Mammon they are essaying an im- 
possibility. They are wondering and wondering why they 
do not succeed better in the conversion of sinners, and in the 
extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. They have truth on 
their side, "the truth as it is in Jesus," the most important 



22 TUB TREE OF LIFE. 

truth tliat can be presented to dying men ; with the promised 
presence of the Saviour, to whom all power in heaven and on 
earth is given ; as also the Spirit's aid to the extent of their 
request for it. Men are naturally religionists, have an in- 
stinctive reverence for a supreme Being, have an innate 
thirst for happiness, and often feel deeply their emptiness and 
need of Gospel blessedness. And some churches, in their 
organizations and surroundings, are peculiarly adapted to the 
work of winning souls to Christ. The churches being com- 
posed largely of talented and influential lay members, and 
having leaders possessed of almost superhuman native power 
of oratory, who often pour their burning eloquence in such 
torrents upon their hearers as to startle them from their seats, 
and, as it would seem, almost enough to raise the literally 
dead from their slumbers. And yet, after all, the standard 
of true piety is not elevated one iota. 

Four men took a boat one afternoon and went eight miles 
up the Mississippi River to attend a festival. Late in the 
evening they went on board their boat and commenced row- 
ing for home. After rowing for a great while, they won- 
dered and wondered why they did not make their destined 
landing. They had a good boat under them, had four good 
oars, all skillfully and energetically plied, were favored with 
a steady downward current, and yet it was evident that they 
were not making due progress. As the day began to dawn, 
one of the men said : " Put me on shore, and I will run up 
the bank and see where we are." In a few minutes he re- 
turned with this startling announcement : " We are just 
where we were when we commenced rowing — have not gained 
a single foot. And no marvel — we have not taken in our 
stern anchor !" 

Before going on shore they dropped a small kedge-anchor 
into the river, a short distance from the land, to which they 
attached the boat by a bowline, in order to keep it off the 
shore. The harder they pulled at the oars the deeper the flukes 



SPIRITUAL BEGEXEEACY. 23 

of the little kedger fastened themselves in the gronnd, and the 
strong arms of the boatmen conld avail nothing nntil this 
mooring was broken np ; then their passage down the gentle 
current was easy and pleasant. 

As the millennial dawn advances — the day-star is now np — 
some of the watchmen on the walls of Zion will ascend the 
Satanic fog-bank far enough to discover the true cause of her 
long and bitter captivity, and call proper attention to it. 
Then will the set time to favor Zion speedily come. One 
will chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, 
and nations will be born in a day. 

" The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy 
the works of the Devil." At the opening of his manifesta- 
tion he laid the ax " unto the root of the trees." All the 
circumstances of his birth and life — which could not have 
been accidental, but providential, as devised in the counsels 
of eternity — administer a strong rebuke to the pride of man 
as exhibited in his love of pre-eminence. In establishing a 
kingdom in this world, it was manifestly the design of the 
Saviour to place all the subjects of his kingdom on a par as 
to duties and privileges. This is evident from his instructions 
to and example before his disciples, as recorded in the thir- 
teenth chapter of John. The declaration, " So likewise who- 
soever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he 
can not be my disciple," admits of no rational construction 
except on the equality principle. The sum of the declaration 
is : No man who is not willing to come out from the world, 
renounce its principles, maxims, customs and practices, and 
throw himself and all that he hath into the community which 
I have formed, and make common cause with us in the grand 
enterprise which I have undertaken for the subversion of Sa- 
tan's kingdom, and the establishment of my kingdom in the 
earth, is worthy of me, or can be regarded as my disciple. 
This was what the first little band of Christians understood 
by discipleship. Accordingly, they made an entire surrender 



24 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

of themselves and all they possessed to the brotherhood, to 
be used at its discretion in the furtherance of the common 
object. At length Satan prevailed upon two consummate 
hypocrites, Ananias and Sapphira, to offer themselves to join 
the fraternity under the pretense of giving up every thing, 
while they held back a portion of their property. This 
brought swift destruction upon themselves, and the event so 
frightened others that no more dared to join the radicals. 

Since that time great diversity of opinion has prevailed in 
regard to the signification of the term " forsake th not all that 
he hath." A few are glad to accept it according to its obvi- 
ous import : Enter heartily into the service of their divine 
Master with all the energies of their minds and bodies, and 
all their earthly possessions, asking nothing for themselves 
but food and raiment convenient for them, and the common 
blessings of " godliness," which " is profitable unto all things, 
having promise of the life that now is and of that which is 
to come." Others, comprising the largest class of professing 
Christians, make the " forsaketh" to mean : Giving up every * 
thing as to God, but not as to man. There must be a hewrt 
consecration of all to God. But if by " providential arrange- 
ment" property has fallen into one's hands — millions it may 
be — he must renounce the ownership of it as between him- 
self and God, but hold it firmly as between himself and his 
fellow-men, subject only to benevolent dispensations. And 
here, too, great latitude prevails as to views and practice in 
regard to benevolent giving ; some are liberal and some pe- 
nurious. 

Why does God need a special quitclaim of our property 
to him? It is his by " divine right;" "the earth is the 
Lord's and the fullness thereof." If he wanted any of it for 
his own personal use he would not ask us for it. But he 
does need a large amount of men and means for the advance- 
ment of his cause on earth — the cause languishes for the lack 
thereof. " The Captain of our salvation," who is at the head 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 25 

of this cause, and who gave himself to it, with all his im- 
mense wealth, not reserving enough wherewith to provide 
himself with a resting-place for his head when he was weary, 
is calling loudly for help and helpers, and in a great variety 
of forms offering large inducements to all who are willing 
to make a hearty, free-will .offering of themselves and their 
effects to the grand enterprise, which must eventually tri- 
umph. 

If our Saviour was in favor of the accumulation of wealth 
by individuals for benevolent purposes, or for any purpose, 
what significance was there in the destitute circumstances of 
his birth, kindred ties and associations, and in the general 
tenor of his life and teachings ? Why did he not suit his 
example to his principle, if he held to the inequality princi- 
ple ? He might have amassed any amount of wealth with- 
out infringing upon his divine prerogative. He spake as 
never man spake ; attracted multitudes of hearers wherever 
he went ; and as an itinerant lecturer or fixed public speaker 
he might have filled his coffers with gold and silver. And 
surely no man ever had better opportunities than he had for 
pouring out wealth like water. He had a poor mother, too, 
dependent on him for support, whom he was under the ne- 
cessity of intrusting to the care of a disciple on his crucifix- 
ion, without pecuniary consideration. And he doubtless had 
indigent brothers and sisters who would have been glad of 
a little " material aid." 

Further. If "it is praiseworthy to desire and labor for 
wealth ;" if it is not radically wrong to hold a separate in- 
terest and accumulate it as such ; if there is no evil tendency 
in the accumulation of property on such a basis, why did the 
Saviour say that it was " easier for a camel to go through the 
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom 
of God" — one of the greatest natural impossibilities ? 

" That which is highly esteemed among men is abomina- 
tion in the sight of God," What is " that which is highly 
2 



26 THE T BEE OF LIFE. 

esteemed among men" that "is abomination in the sight of 
God?" Not drunkenness and debauchery. The inebriate 
and debauchee detest these practices in their inmost souls, and 
would give worlds, if they possessed them, to be freed from 
the " law in their members" that keeps them in subjection to 
such horrible degradation. Nothing that is commonly re- 
garded as vile is highly esteemed among men. What, then, 
is that referred to as being " highly esteemed among men ?" 
Most unquestionably it is that which sustains the ruling pas- 
sion in men for self-exaltation. And as money or its equiv- 
alent is the mainspring of the machinery for personal and 
family elevation and aggrandizement, the possession of this 
is highly, very highly, esteemed among men. It is so highly 
esteemed, and so universally, that almost any method of ob- 
taining it is easily tolerated or winked at. And those who 
are so fortunate as to possess themselves of large estates are 
regarded as highly favored. And if the separate interest 
principle is the true one, and individual acquisition right and 
commendable, there can be no objection to the quantity of pe- 
cuniary means any one may amass, if it be hundreds of thou- 
sands or millions, so far as mere possession is concerned. 
" For, if the root be holy, so are the branches." And if the 
tree be good the fruit will be good, whether there is much or 
little of it. But who does not know that the constant ten- 
dency of wealth is to engender pride and arrogance, with all 
their accompanying vices — if not in the heart and conscience, 
in the outward life, where the bitter principle of selfishness 
gives a practical demonstration of its evil nature and ten- 
dency. One notable effect of wealth is to place its possessor 
in an elevated, commanding position, with the privilege of 
living without work himself and employing others to labor 
for him. And in the system of servitude there is a regular 
gradation from the man of small means, who hires help by 
the hour or day, to the millionaire, who employs his fellow- 
beings by the hundreds and thousands, hiring them during 
life, with their progeny in perpetuity. 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 27 

The difference in the two cases is simply that one man 
owns the right of property in his fellow-man for an hour or 
a day, and the other by perpetual lease. And the incipiency 
in servitude bears the same relation to its culmination in the 
extremity of chattel slavery, that the moderate use of beer 
and cider does to besotted drunkenness. The beginning in 
either case is more reprehensible than the ending, inasmuch 
as it is easier to " leave off" evil doing " before it is meddled 
with" than afterward. 



CHAPTER II. 

PHYSICAL DEPEAVITY ACCESSOEY TO SPIRIT- 
UAL DEGENEEACY. 

Next to the violation of the second great command — by 
which the golden cord that should have bound the human 
family firmly together as a band of brothers for mutual ben- 
efit, was ruptured, and the family torn into fragments, whence 
has arisen contentions, animosities and bloodshed — the device 
of the enemy has been to secure in individuals an unlimited 
breach of the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, " Thou 
shalt not kill." This command in its true spirit " requires 
all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of 
others ;" and " forbids the taking away of our own life or 
the life of our neighbor unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth 
thereunto." We have no more right to take life by piece- 
meal, gradually, than we have to kill outright. And we are 
bound to use all the means within our knowledge or reach 
to preserve life, and to avoid every thing that would tend to 
shorten it. But what strange infatuation everywhere pre- 
vails on this subject. Life " dwindled to the shortest span," 
feeble health, bodily disorder or distress abounding on every 
side, and yet very little of it is ascribed to human agency, 
or is supposed to be under human responsibility ; but is all 
wrapt up in a " mysterious providence." 

" Diseases are thy servants, Lord, 
They go and come at thy command." 

Parents on the death of their young childremconsole them- 
(28) ! 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 29 

selves with the reflection that the Lord wanted them for a 
higher and better service, and had put them early into the 
school of heaven for training. 

A minister preaching on the subject of faith, by way of 
illustration made the following case : "A man of immense 
wealth sends his son to a boarding-school, and, among other 
directions, charges him particularly to draw on him for 
money to the full extent of his necessities. And now, said the 
minister, suppose the young man fails to avail himself of his 
father's opulence and munificence, and it becomes proverbi- 
ally understood in the school that he is in a destitute and un- 
comfortable condition, what would you think of it ?" Sure 
enough — a strong case ! 

I marveled that the preacher did not push his analogical 
test of faith a little further, and inquire what would be 
thought of a young man at school who was out of health 
most of his time, unable to prosecute his studies to effect ; 
while his father was very desirous that he should enjoy un- 
interrupted, sound and vigorous health ; had an abundance 
of the "balm of Gilead," and a physician in the family with 
skill and power to cure all manner of diseases. It does not 
require much faith in God to get money ; indeed, the less a 
man has of it the better for such a purpose. A man of 
strong faith could not accumulate property and hold it in his 
own name. "The man Christ Jesus," who had strong faith 
in his " holy Father," gained no earthly inheritance. Paul, 
a man of faith, had " no certain dwelling-place," except his 
11 own hired house," for a short season. Many of the early 
Christians had too much faith in God to hold on to the 
"mammon of unrighteousness." In later times, John Wes- 
ley was too strong in the faith for money keeping, though 
much of it passed through his hands. He said, in the vigor 
of his days, that if his administrator found that he was pos- 
sessed of fifteen pounds of property at his death, he might 
be called a thief and a robber. That amount was not found 
at his decease belonging to him. 



30 THE TREE OF LIFE, 

Of all the doleful evils that flow from the damaged and 
depraved state of the human body, the most doleful result 
is the baneful influence which it has, or the ruinous effect 
which is thereby exerted upon the immortal mind which in- 
habits the body. In the early part of my medical life, more 
than half a century ago, before I had heard of phrenology, 
and before Gall, the founder of the scientific base of phre- 
nology, had called public attention to the subject, I became 
satisfied by observations at the bedside of my patients that 
what I now understand to be held as the cardinal points of 
phrenology were true ; viz., that the moral and intellectual fac- 
ulties depended for their exercise or manifestation upon the 
brain, and that these manifestations are sound and natural, 
or otherwise, according to the structure and vital condition 
of the brain ; and also that the general sensibility has the 
same dependence, and that the emotions and feelings will be 
kind and pleasant, or sour and crabbed, according to the 
varying state of the brain and nerves of sensibility there- 
with connected. 

The phenomena to which I have alluded as the basis of 
my phrenological views, were mental, moral and affectional 
changes in various degrees, resulting from changes in the 
physical condition of my patients. One young lady, conva- 
lescing from the typhus fever, but still subject to mild de- 
lirium, would commence talking about eight o'clock in the 
morning and continue her discourse for an hour, with great 
fluency of speech, propriety of diction, and entire continuity 
and oneness of subject. This course was pursued regularly 
every morning for a week ; having a new topic for every dis- 
course. One morning she gave us a history of a visit which 
she made a few years previous, when she was in her girl- 
hood, to the city of New York, in company with some rela- 
tives. The account detailed with great minuteness and par- 
ticularity all the circumstances of the visit — dress, changes of 
dress, company, occurrences on the passage to New York, visits 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 81 

in the city, what she saw there, etc. The simple narrative, 
closing with her arrival at home, occupied the hour with a well 
connected train of thought, handsomely expressed. After fin- 
ishing a discourse she would fail into a dull, inattentive state, 
dosing most of the time from which it was difficult to arouse 
her sufficiently to get an answer to any plain, simple ques- 
tion. I witnessed two or three of these animated discourses, 
getting in a little before they were commenced. The young 
lady would wake up from a semi-lethargic state, be raised 
and bolstered up in bed, look pleasantly around upon her 
little audience, consisting of some half a dozen invited friends 
of the family, her countenance beaming with intelligence and 
life, and then commence her discourse. 

The points noteworthy in this case are : First, the astonish- 
ing mental activity manifested during a paroxysm of high 
excitement under which the brain was held for a short pe- 
riod ; especially the power of memory, far surpassing any 
thing the young lady had ever exhibited in her best health. 
Secondly, the almost entire obscuration of mind in the in- 
terim of cerebral excitement. The sudden and great change 
in the mental aspect of this person could not result from any 
change in the mind itself, abstractly considered ; for if the 
mind were liable to change in the elementary texture and 
activity of its being, it might suddenly pass into annihila- 
tion. No one believes that mind is thus susceptible of 
change. In another case, a man in middle life, educated and 
of good parts, in health rather remarkable for a kind and 
very obliging disposition, while passing through a febrile 
affection would be ferociously cross for an hour or two every 
day, at a certain time of day. I never saw such an instance 
of rank touchiness in any other person. It was very un- 
comfortable for any one, even his wife, of whom he was very 
fond at other times, to be about him on these occasions. 

Hum makes some persons cross and snappish, and others 
uncommonly good-natured. Eum does not act on "the 



32 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

spirit of man that goeth upward," only through the medium 
of matter. A young man of great promise had his head 
broken by a fall ; on his recovering his general bodily health 
his judgment was very much impaired, nearly lost, while 
his memory and organs of language were rather improved. 
This was evidential of a complexity of the mental organs. 

Most persons are aware of great difference in their mental 
and emotional states at different times, even in what is usu- 
ally considered pretty good health. At one time their fac- 
ulty of memory is fresh and strong— they can call up old 
impressions with ease and clearness. At another time it 
seems almost impossible to start a train of thought. 

Emotional attitudes also vary with many persons more or 
less, and with some are very fickle. Some very good pious 
folks, of particular nervous temperaments, are prone to run 
into storms of fretting and scolding; which, in their calm 
and collected moments, greatly perplexes and distresses them. 
They make their confessions before the church and their 
friends ; severely reprehend themselves ; solemnly engage to 
be more watchful and restrictive of their tempers in future, 
but all to no purpose. Although usually amiable and pleas- 
ant, these outbreaks of sour feelings into bitter and reproach- 
ful words will have their periods about as certainly as par- 
oxysms of hysterics or epilepsy, and are about as little under 
self-control as these spasmodic affections are. 

A little exhilarating or " laughing gas" will make a sober- 
minded man play strange antics. The conclusion of the 
whole matter with me is, that man for his intellectual and 
affectional character and manifestations depends upon the 
condition of the brain and its appendages ; and also that his 
moral character is very much shaped thereby. And as the 
brain is a physical organ, endowed and governed like other 
physical parts, there must be a sound and perfect body to 
secure a sound and perfect mind — to make a man "perfect 
and entire, wanting nothing." Great inequalities may exist 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 33 

between the mental apparatus and other departments of the 
organism. One man may possess a well-formed, strong and 
vigorous muscular frame, and a small, poorly developed and 
endowed brain, and, consequently, be feeble minded ; while 
another man, with a slender muscular frame, may have a 
well developed and endowed brain, and therefore pass for a 
man of strong mind. But as all parts of the human sys- 
tem are intimately connected in their structural arrangements, 
vital endowment and governmental supervision, it would be 
irrational to suppose that one department of the body can be 
perfected without all parts are included in the finishing work. 
Whether all minds are equal or not in their spiritual attri- 
butes, every mind is equal to the entire charge and full ex- 
ercise of one sound body, developed to its utmost limits and 
plenteously endowed with scientific memoranda or characters, 
including instrumentality and faculty for music, poetry, ora- 
tory, and every branch of science and art in combination that 
has ever been possessed and exercised by individuals in a sep- 
arate capacity since the advent of man upon the earth. For 
no one pair of the human family has ever been clothed with 
procreative power and faculty to produce a single organ or 
faculty, or part or parcel of an organ or faculty, essential to 
the perfection of human character, that was not in the origi- 
nal programme as a common inheritance for every individual 
of the race. And although sin has greatly abridged and 
obscured the masterpiece of God's handiwork, in its best 
type, within present knowledge, yet there is enough of it left, 
even in the most degraded portions of the race, as in the 
Hottentot, to be restored or built up by proper culture, 
through successive generations, to the highest possible level 
of human greatness. And to that level, in some coming fu- 
ture, all mankind are to be elevated, and constitute one great, 
glorious and inconceivably happy family, with their great 
Father and elder brother at its head. 

Recuperative faculty and power from a wise providential 



34 THE TREE OF LIFE, 

forecast, will ultimately put the mind in possession of a set 
of apparatus or machinery by which it will grasp with un- 
erring certainty all immediately essential truth, and fall in 
with and discharge promptly, faithfully and joyfully every in- 
cumbent duty — all as naturally as water runs down hill. And 
not only will man, with a renovated organism, have all the 
requisites for pleasant sociability, easy and accurate scientific 
attainments and solid compact ratiocination ; but he will also 
have under perfect contrpl complete sets of highly finished 
organic instrumentality for the embellishments of rhetoric, 
poetry, music, etc. etc. Notwithstanding the organs of tune 
have been hitherto very generally in a sadly dilapidated 
state, there is now fair promise of their being eventually re- 
stored to primitive soundness, as much attention is being 
paid to improvement in singing ; especially with children and 
youth, where physiological reform must always begin to be 
effective. The time will come when the feeble in song shall 
be as David, when the least among the innumerable multi- 
tudes of singers shall quite surpass Jenny Lind, the Swedish 
Nightingale. For if these things are done in the green tree, 
what shall be done in the dry. If such power and pathos of mu- 
sic are compatible with an exceedingly defective state of the 
general system of organs ; what may be looked for from the 
organs of tune when they, in common with all the other de- 
partments of the system, shall be complete in development, 
finish and force ? How delightful, even in anticipation, to 
hear " babes and sucklings" caroling forth their "perfected 
praise;" and " young men and maidens, old men and chil- 
dren," praising in elevated song "the name of the Lord, for 
his name alone is excellent ; his glory is above the earth 
and the heaven." 

If the reader would get a glimpse of " the good time com- 
ing," let him go with me in imagination to "the delectable 
mountains," and witness something of "the beauties of holi- 
ness" as there manifested in e very-day life. True, there is 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 35 

now "a great gulf" between us and that " happy land," but 
it is not impassable in fancy, and is soon to be bridged over 
in a renovated humanity, so that " flesh and blood" will pass 
over and inherit it. Note first the personal appearance of 
the inhabitants. Of suitable size and admirable contour and 
proportion, they are all, without an exception, exquisitely 
beautiful — exceedingly handsome in form and feature. From 
the sole of their feet to the crown of their head there is not 
a blemish in them. Intelligence, vivacity and mirthful good 
nature sparkle in their countenances, and Samsonian 
strength, united with the agility and fleetness of the roe, 
characterize their every movement. From their simple mode 
of life, in strict conformity to law, they of course know noth- 
ing of disease, feebleness, nor infirmities of any kind. They 
have no pains nor aches ; even parturient labor is performed 
with as much ease as any other natural function. Being held 
constantly in the great Providential hand, under special an- 
gelic charge, they are never liable to dash their foot against 
a stone or be subject to any disastrous casualty. Except for 
the single purpose of progeny, " there is neither male nor 
female," but all "one in Christ Jesus." Commingling to- 
gether on the grand summit-level of human perfection, and 
standing erect in all the simplicity and power of conscious 
innocence, they have nothing to conceal from each other. 
As among the adults there are no grades of corporal stature 
and muscular prowess, so there are no grades of intellectu- 
ality. In these regards sex makes no exception. There is 
no mental sexuality. Feminine minds come of femininity, or 
effeminacy of body — an immensely pernicious quality, 
"highly esteemed among men," but is "abomination in the 
sight of Cod." It is the product of gross violations of heav- 
en-ordained physiological laws. 

The paramount and overtowering blessing enjoyed by the 
inhabitants of the New Jerusalem, and which is the source 
of all their subordinate blessings, is the complete restoration 



36 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



of the long lost " communion with God." Basking in the 
sunshine of the divine favor, and living and moving and 
having their being in an infinite ocean of light and love, they 
can but see eye to eye in all things pertaining to God's glory 
and their own highest happiness. They " all speak the same 
thing," and are " perfectly joined together, in the same mind 
and in the same judgment." Their mutual love is fervent ; 
stronger than death and as lasting as immortality. They 
enjoy life individually — take great satisfaction in the use of 
present temporal comforts. Their physical conscience or 
nervous sensibility being constantly maintained at the zenith 
of its purity and strength, they enjoy a fullness of pleasur- 
able emotion, both in the relish of their food and in the 
general good feeling that flows steadily from thousands of 
well-fed, well-sustained and grateful organic functionaries. 
From this state of corporal felicity, good nature, as a spir- 
itual or higher attribute of the man, is an inevitable se- 
quence. The dwellers in Paradise Regained can not be pro- 
voked into an ill-natured mood. They may — or might, if the 
suppositive circumstances were a possibility — feel indignant 
at wrongs, but they could not be urged into that state of 
feeling which is denominated anger. The staple of their 
happiness, however, is of a social nature. Communion with 
their living head is the grand source of their spiritual activ- 
ities and rational enjoyments. Being one with Christ, as he 
is one with the Father, they are of necessity one with each 
other. Hence, they find it to be more blessed to give than 
to receive. They withhold nothing that it is in their power 
to give or to do, when giving or doing will benefit others. 
They are indeed but one great brotherhood, with a common 
Father ; and are inheritors together of the common bounties 
and blessings of their kind and bountiful benefactor. There 
is no necessity of a selfish division of property, any more than 
there is for such a division of the air they breathe. The 
windows of heaven are open, and blessings descend till there 



SFIRITUAL JDEGEXERAC7. 37 

is no room for more. Perfect contentment is one of the car- 
dinal virtues of the renovated Edenic family. This is true 
through all the periods of life, from infancy to the extremity 
of earthly existence. Children are bom in Christ, having 
passed the new birth in the loins of their progenitors. The 
last generation of the race of imperfect believers, as they as- 
cended the mount of Psycho-physiological Reformation — these 
two branches of reform must go together to perfect manhood 
— and come fairly under the influence of the bright and 
quickening rays of the sun of millennial glory, compre- 
hended the full intent of the Saviour's declaration : "Again 
I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, as 
touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for 
them of my Father which is in heaven," And parents, stand- 
ing firmly on that promise, asked that their children might 
be sanctified from the womb in body, soul and spirit ; and a 
petition so congenial to the Saviour's feelings, and offered in 
full confidence of the divine disposition and ability to grant 
it, was answered in all its length and breadth. From that 
time " old things passed away, all things became new." " Sor- 
row and sighing" passed away, and their joy is full and un- 
interrupted ; their peace is like a deep-flowing river. Their 
faith in God is now a living reality, and knows no bounds. 
And their desire to please God is equal to their confidence in 
him, and therefore they have whatsoever they ask for. In- 
deed, in them is fulfilled the prediction, " Before they call I 
will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear." 
Their wants are anticipated and abundantly supplied. All 
the tendencies of their complex nature are strongly upward, 
culminating in the perfection of their being, which gives 
them the full and easy possession of themselves, their pro- 
pensities, appetites and passions. At this juncture or grand 
climax in human progress, "mercy and truth meet together, 
righteousness and peace kiss each other." Henceforward 
truth and righteousness are easily distinguished from false- 



38 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



liood and error in relation to all subjects, great and small. 
All truth is God's truth, which is transparency itself. The 
Devil has no truth. " There is no truth in hiin." " When 
he speaketk a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar 
and the father of it." And when the father of lies is de- 
throned, so that he can go no more out to deceive, there will 
be no falsehood or error to detect or reject. All will then be 
taught of God, and taught nothing but truth. 

All righteousness is God's righteousness. The Devil has no 
righteousness ; he is "the enemy of all righteousness." And 
when the Devil ceases to pervert the right ways of the Lord, 
it will be easy to do just right. The tendency to truth and 
righteousness will be stronger than life. 

But time would fail us to notice all " the benefits which 
in this life do either accompany or flow from justification, 
adoption and sanctification." Therefore, let us turn from 
these enchanting visions of the future to a contemplation of 
the simple matter of fact state of things at the present time, 
and inquire what is being done to hasten on the latter-day 
glory. And where shall we look for pioneer labor and 
laborers, if not to Oberlin, which has now attained to vigor- 
ous manhood, and become a power in the world ? 



CHAPTER III 

PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL REEOBM 
A NECESSITY OE THE TIMES. 

The original founders of Oberlin, the Rev, John J, Ship- 
herd and Mr. P. P. Stewart, were moved in their attempt to 
establish a new colony, in connection with a literary, moral 
and religious institution, by a deep conviction that all exist- 
ing communities and institutions of learning partook too 
much of the spirit, principles and customs of the world, to 
fit them to be zealous and efficient co-workers with God in 
his grand work of the world's redemption. Their " beau 
ideal" of a Christian community for the times was as nearly 
perfect as erring mortals could well conceive of. In the com- 
pact or covenant which they drew up, and which was signed 
by the early settlers, is contained the following, among other 
stipulations : 

"We will hold and manage our estates personally, but 
pledge as perfect a community of interest as though we held 
a community of property.' ' 

" We will, by industry, economy and Christian self-denial, 
obtain as much as we can above our necessary personal or 
family expenses, and faithfully appropriate the same for the 
spread of the gospel." 

" That we may have time and health for the Lord's ser- 
vice, we will eat only plain and wholesome food, renouncing 
all bad habits, especially the smoking and chewing of to- 
bacco, and deny ourselves all strong unnecessary drinks, even 
tea and coffee, as far as practicable, and every thing expen- 
sive that is simply calculated to gratify the palate." 

(39) 



40 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

" We will renounce the world's expensive and unwhole- 
some fashions of dress, particularly tight-lacing and orna- 
mental attire ; and will observe plainness and durability in 
the construction of our houses, in our furniture, carriages, 
and all that appertains to us." 

" We will strive continually to show that we, as the body 
of Christ, are members one of another, and will, while living, 
provide for the widows, orphans, and families of the sick and 
needy as for ourselves." 

"We will take special pains to educate all our children 
thoroughly, and to train them up in body, intellect and heart 
for the service of the Lord." 

For awhile the community " did run well." It was a 
united and happy fraternity ; experienced in a peculiar man- 
ner strongly marked tokens of the divine favor, and as strik- 
ingly manifested evidence of popular displeasure. At length, 
' i another king arose which knew not Joseph," ' ' The covenant 
was mainly laid aside, being found too specific to serve as a 
general pledge of Christian purpose and too general to be a 
guide to specific duty." 

" 'Tis no surprising thing" that Oberlin should shrink back 
under the weight of opprobrium that the arch Deceiver suc- 
ceeded in raising against her, and retire to a more secure and 
sheltered position. She had pushed her reformatory opera- 
tions further into the heart of the seducer's kingdom than 
had ever been done before, and of course was assailed with 
fiercer and more malign opposition than had fallen to the lot 
of any other community. It was impracticable for Oberlir 
to remain where she first dropped anchor; she must either g. 
forward or backward. For, although approximating the 
only sure and safe anchorage ground, she was not fairly and 
squarely upon it ; and without more support than there was 
a prospect of her getting, she could not long remain where 
she was. There was only one of two courses she could 
pursue. She must weigh anchor and get under way, grasp 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 41 

the helm with a firm, unflinching hand, tighten sail, haul 
close upon the wind, keep a steady eye upon the polar star 
of Gospel principle and move forward, irrespective of Vae 
foaming billows around them or fears and misgivings within, 
— always bearing in mind the Scripture declaration, "All 
that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" — 
until they reached the fair haTen of pure theoretical and 
practical godliness. Once safely moored there, the banner 
of the cross unfurled, and the fruita of righteousness abound- 
ing, the Devil would flee from them. 

The other alternative was simple, very feasible and quite 
congenial to the natural heart. It was just to cut the grap- 
pling lines, get up a little sail and run down before the wind 
to the capacious harbor of " God and Mammon" and cast 
anchor among the main fleet of imperfect believers, where 
all are permitted to rest in quiet composure ; the Devil hav- 
ing but little to fear from any thing that they will be likely 
to do on their present basis. They may be as zealous as 
they please in spreading themselves. Satan knows full well 
that streams never rise higher than their fountains, and if 
the earth was filled with this kind of Christianity it would, 
not shake the pillars of his kingdom. This alternative was 
Oberlin's choice, and she now enjoys the common repose of 
the churches generally. She soon "lived down popular prej- 
udice," and also obtained wide-spread fame of pleasant 
gratulation for herself among the great ones of the earth, 
and has really accomplished much inferior good. Indeed, in 
the main lineaments of a wholesome Christian community, 
owing to the large proportion of good material in her first 
construction and other favoring circumstances, not to her 
being at present founded on better principles or holding the 
truth in stricter or sterner righteousness, Gberlin surpasses 
any other community within my acquaintance. But as she 
has lapsed from the advanced position in moral and physical 
reform which the noble founders of the colony at first man- 



42 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

fully assumed, she can no longer be regarded as a desirable 
and safe model for a new community to pattern after in lay- 
ing a foundation for psychological and physiological refor- 
mation ; so that these two reforms still remain a desideratum 
for future adventurers. 

It is, probably, yet too early to attempt storming the cita- 
del or stronghold of the enemy, by the only mode of war- 
fare that can ever be successful — a decisive execution of the 
pure Gospel code of ethics. The Author and Finisher of 
faith might not be able to work faith enough in the assailing 
party to effect the object, without too much impairing the 
freedom of will. 

It is useless to attempt to lead Providence, but in this ad- 
vanced age of the world the leaders of the sacramental host, 
standing as they do on the watch-tower for observation, should 
catch the first signal of the providential hand, and be ready 
to move on with alacrity in the execution of any orders that 
may be clearly indicated by the rapidly changing signs of 
the times, the overturnings of Providence, and not wait to 
be dragged along by the gills. 

Would it not be well for ministers of the Gospel of all de- 
nominations and prominent lay-members of churches to in- 
quire whether a thorough remodeling of the present mode 
of conducting operations for subduing the great rebellion is 
not called for — some essential change of base ? Or might it 
not be profitable for the respective churches to come to a 
stand-still long enough to examine their modes of worship, 
and see if there is not something defective in them, some- 
thing calculated to mislead the mind, though they may be 
canonical enough ? They have frequent seasons of prayer, 
and plead and plead for the outpouring and aid of the Holy 
Spirit, and for the divine blessing upon their labors. This 
gives color to the idea that God is reluctant to help his chil- 
dren in their endeavors to build up his kingdom, which is 
certainly very far from being true. On the contrary, God 



SPIRITUAL DEGEXEEACY. 43 

takes especial care to re] i himself as exceedingly de- 

ready to give his to those who ask him foi 

it, more so than earthly parents are to give good things to 
their children. He is standing at the door and knocking for 
admission, that he may tender any kind and amount of h 
that may be needed. The parable of the Prodigal Son. and 
numerous other portions of Scripture, most unequivocally 

jst the unceasing readiness of God to be with and aid 
loyal subjects in their efforts to advance his cause in the 
world, jus: as far as humble trust in him will warrant. Do 
not Christians lose sight of this great and glorious truth, and 
in the meager success of their labors in the cause of the Sav- 
iour get some consolation from the reflection that they have 
prayed long and earnestly for divine guidance and ail. while 
fault is all their own. in overlooking and consequently nc : 
cling plain instructions ? "What should be thought of a son 
who. with the plainest possible instructions in his hand and 
ample means at Lis dis; - raaages Lis father's husii - 

in a loose. Blip-shod, unsatisfactory manner, and at the same 
oe is ever importuning ' blessed father" foi fresh direc- 

ts and help? He thinks he is honest and heartily de- 
voted to his father's interest, while, through the deceitfdlness 

in. he is asking amiss that he may consume his fathe 
bounty upon his Lasts; use it for his exclusive convenience 
and comfort, to the inconvenience and discomfort of others 
who are entitled to an equal share of it with himself. 

I think churches and individual members in conducting 
any Christian enterprise, or in the discharge of specific du- 
ties, should act on the most determined , assurance, without 
reservation or equivocation ; that they have an ample chart 
of general principles and rules sufficient for tLrir guidance. 
without further revelation from heaven; and also that they 
•e a guar:. ence, blessing and aid, to the 

full extent of their necessities, both for meet under- 

standing of duties and the faithful performance of them. 



44 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

Under a course of procedure in accordance with the fore- 
going suggestions, all loopholes for escape from personal re- 
sponsibility would be closed. The relation between worker 
and co-worker would be better understood — one working in 
both to will and to do of his good pleasure, and the other work- 
ing out his own salvation with fear and trembling. Chris- 
tians would soon come to understand that there was some- 
thing for them to do, and they would not be content until it 
was done or under a satisfactory process of being done. 
They would discover that they not only had new hearts to 
make, but also new bodies — every thing new. And if the 
regenerating process did not proceed more satisfactorily, both 
as to quality and progress, than it has hitherto done since 
the great commission for the world's conversion was first 
issued, they would not resort to daily prayer-meetings for a 
little solace or flattering unction for troubled consciences, but 
look around and within them for the difficulty and remove it. 

But ministers of the Gospel and churches, as bodies, may 
not heed the preceding suggestions, pause in their present 
dreamy course and ponder their ways, and therefore I will 
appeal to the individual Christian. 

" O stop, poor Christian ! stop and think , 
Before you further go !" 

If you are a master mechanic and are about to build a 
house, ship or steam engine, you are careful to get a plan 
drawn out of what you are about to build, in all its details, 
before you commence operations. You get a distinct idea of 
it well formed in your mind ; know just how it will appear 
when it is finished. Then you are prepared to gather ma- 
terial, set your hands at work, and do up your job ; and when 
it is finished you are satisfied with it. 

And now how is it with regard to the vastly more im- 
portant building that you have undertaken to construct — a 
Christian character and life ? Have you even a faint, shad- 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 45 



owy idea of what Christian manhood should be — will be in 
God's good time ? Or are you satisfied with a " good and 
regular standing" in the church, with the enjoyment of a 
little " inward life" that " plays around the head, but comes 
not near the heart ;" that leaves " old things" much as they 
were before you were transplanted into the garden or vine- 
yard of the Lord, your love of the world, its customs, fash- 
ions, gross habits of living, which, by inevitable sequence, 
entails upon you and your posterity "to the third and fourth 
generation" the common ills of life, bodily infirmities, dis- 
eases and all their accompaniments of anxiety, pain, sor- 
row, perplexity, doubts, fears and premature old age or early 
death? "Conversion may be the work of a moment, but a 
saint is not made in an hour. Character, Christian charac- 
ter, is not an act, but a process ; not a sudden creation, but a 
development. It grows and bears fruit like a tree, and like 
a tree it requires patient care and unwearied cultivation." 

It is to a correct understanding, patient care and unwea- 
ried culture of the tree oe liee that I wish to call the at- 
tention of my Christian reader. I would have him give no 
sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids till he is satis- 
fied that he is aiming for the strait gate and narrow way, un- 
til he has good reason for believing that he realty desires to 
understand and obey the laws of life ; and they are neither 
grievous nor hard to be understood. For as sure as grass 
grows and water runs, if he and his descendants render unto 
Caesar the things that are Cesar's, and unto God the things 
that are God's, perfection that is perfection will crown his 
posterity within the fourth generation. 

Among the marvelous overturnings, foreshadowings and 
illustrative events of a wonder-working Providence may be 
reckoned a settlement made on a little island called Pitcairn's 
Island, in the South Sea, a century or more ago. The cir- 
cumstances attending the settlement are briefly these : Eng- 
land sent out a government ship into the region of the South 



46 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

Seas on a voyage of discovery, and for other purposes. While 
in that region, the ship's crew mutinied. A large majority 
of the sailors, by preconcert, put the officers of the ship and 
a few of the hands that would not unite in the mutiny into 
one of the ship's boats and set them adrift on the open 
ocean. The mutineers then sailed to one of the large islands, 
where most of them remained and formed connections with 
the islanders. Eight or ten of them took each a native fe- 
male for wife, who with about an equal number of the native 
men and their wives went on shipboard, ran down to the 
previously uninhabited island laid down on the charts as Pit- 
cairn's Island, and landed. After taking from the ship sails, 
spars and whatever they desired, they set fire to and burned 
it down to the water. Half a century afterward, more or 
less, a British man-of-war passing the island and discovering 
signs of inhabitants concluded to " heave to" and send a 
deputation on shore to find out who the inhabitants were. 
While getting one of their boats in readiness to go to the 
island they descried a boat coming from the shore with two 
men in it. As the boat neared the ship the men on board 
were greatly surprised to see two smart looking young men 
of decidedly English aspect. As the young men reached the 
ship's deck the surprise was heightened by hearing them 
discourse in good English. And the surprise rose to its cli- 
max as the young gentlemen, on being taken into the cabin 
and invited to partake of some refreshments, stepped up to 
the table, folded their arms on their breasts, and one says, 
" For what we are now about to partake, the Lord make us 
truly thankful." The captain of the ship with some of his 
officers and a surgeon went on shore and learned the follow- 
ing particulars : After the little settlement had been in prog- 
rcss on the island a few years, one of the Englishmen lost 
his wife, and took a wife from one of the natives. This cre- 
ated feuds that resulted in the destruction of all the men on 
the island, with the exception of one of the Englishmen 



SPIRITUAL DEGEXERACT. 47 

named Adam Smith, but who had changed his name and was 
called John Adams. After the death of the other men, Ad- 
ams became a penitent and humble Christian, and, with the 
aid of a Bible and Book of Common Prayers that were saved 
from the ship, set out in earnest to train up the children and 
youth thus providentially left in his charge in the " nurture 
and admonition of the Lord." At the time of this visita- 
tion the little community was getting on to the third gen- 
eration of the descendants of the original stock, which it 
should be remembered was composed of hardened, wicked 
sailors and South Sea islanders, an ignorant heathen race. 
The report of the visitors to the island is exceedingly inter- 
esting in many respects, but my present purpose will be 
answered by noticing two features of it, going to show what 
proper instruction and training, under favorable circum- 
stances, will do for the moral and physical well being of our 
race. The patriarchal Adams had been very particular in his 
instruction in respect to the seventh commandment and 
the golden rule or second great commandment. His rule 
for the marriage of young people, as to age, was that the 
males must be twenty-one years old and the females eigh- 
teen. The testimony through Adams and others is to the 
effect that there had never been any unchastity among the 
youth, "in heart, speech or behavior," notwithstanding 
they were promiscuously together much of the time, by day 
and by night, in their out-door rambles and at work and in 
their lodging apartments, and often everywhere in deshabille. 
They had none of them been known or believed to be guilty 
of untruthfulness ; and their love for each other was steady, 
strong and ardent. With regard to their physical condition, 
the testimony of the report is that they were uniformly good 
looking, well built, straight and trim, strong and sprightly. 
Their strength and agility were tested by lifting, running and 
jumping. A number of the young men took up and carried 
with ease, singly and in succession, six hundred pounds of 



48 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

anchor and other irons from the ship which had been burned. 
The surgeon examined them carefully and found no defect 
about them ; looked into their mouths and found their teeth 
perfectly regular and sound, without an exception. Perhaps 
the best evidence furnished by the report of their muscular 
tone and power of endurance is that occasionally they swam 
around the island at one stretch, male and female, a distance 
of about seven miles. Of sickness the young folks had no 
knowledge in their own experience ; had no colds, coughs, 
fevers, nor disorders of any kind. 

Here is a specimen of " pure religion and undefiled," in 
its elementary or rudimental nature, from simple unsophis- 
ticated teaching, untrammeled by heterodoxical crotchets or 
theological technicalities. And this simple fundamental con- 
dition of normal humanity, as a basis for superstruction 
may be wrought out in any part of God's earthly dominions 
where it is desirable that man should live. A physical fab- 
ric thus established, with just symmetrical proportions in all 
the departments of brain, nerve, muscle, stomach, lungs, 
liver, heart, and arteries, and hundreds of minor organic tex- 
tures, may be expanded as a whole, in every instance, in suc- 
cessive generations, to its ultimate limits as foreordained ; be 
compacted and solidified as it expanded, and be fitted with 
appropriate mental etchings and artistic skill for intellectual, 
scientific and social employment and enjoyments that shall do 
honor to its divine Architect. 

And now, Christian reader, permit me again to inquire 
whether, as " a wise master-builder," or common worker to- 
gether, you have entertained any thing like an adequate idea 
of what it is to * cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the 
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness — wholeness — in the fear 
of God ?" Or are you aware that this work is to be done on 
a large scale within a few generations, and the earth filled 
with Christian man and womanhood ? 

But the fact should not be disguised that the regeneration 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 49 

of mankind physically will be an arduous work. If the car- 
casses of old ' transgressors were, most of them, to fall in the 
wilderness, leaving a few thoroughly converted and enlight- 
ened John Adamses to rear the children and youth, with 
such physiological guides as they could now easily obtain, the 
work of reformation would be comparatively easy; but the 
will of Heaven seems to be that the work shall be carried on 
under the disadvantageous circumstances of old, vicious hab- 
its firmly fixed, which are verily stubborn things. Physio- 
logical reformers have, unwittingly, done much to retard the 
work of man's physical renovation by representing that 
strict conformity to the laws of life would soon renovate the 
worst cases of dilapidated constitutions — work them over and 
make new bodies of them. Thus encouraged, many have 
made trial of a change of diet, and some have held on their 
way for months, when, instead of finding themselves improv- 
ing as they expected to, found that they were getting worse, 
apparently, as they ought to have known would be the case 
with them, and being thereby sorely disappointed have 
turned back again to their former habits of life, and in many 
instances " the last state of that man is worse than the first." 
It is impossible that tissues of organs reduced to a seriously 
crippled state by a long course of transgression should re- 
cover even a tolerable degree of health and vigor in a few 
weeks or months under any treatment. Constitutions natu- 
rally strong that have been temporarily impaired, and that 
still retain considerable vital elasticity, may come up rapidly 
under proper care, and such do often recover their wonted 
soundness with surprising celerity when there has been no 
change in their dietetic habits. But, as a general rule, per- 
sons of medium constitutions and below this, especially such 
as are of a plethoric habit or are predisposed to any chronic 
difficulty of essential organs, whether sick or more than 
usually unwell at the time or not, who change at once from 
the ordinary course of living to a pure and good unstimulat- 



50 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

ing diet, may calculate upon passing an ordeal that will test 
their patience, their power of endurance and confidence in 
dietetic reform. To a greater or less extent they will lose 
their appetite, flesh and strength, experience more or less of 
pain, distress or restlessness, and above all have a sense 
of emptiness and forlornness that will make them think of- 
ten of old times and particularly of their former favorite 
stimulants. In some cases it will be years before as com- 
fortable a state of health as was formerly enjoyed is restored. 
But let all rest assured that there is no danger in abandoning 
any bad habit suddenly and beginning to lay a foundation 
for a good one to take its place, under suitable precautions. 
In due time they will reap the advantages if they faint not. 

The Oberlin colony took a decided and strong position in 
favor of dietetic reform, but not being aware that they must 
pass through the slough of despond before they could get on 
to firm table-land, but rather imagining that they would as- 
cend at once into a hygienic elysium, they were terribly 'af- 
frighted at the immediate results of a sudden strict absti- 
nence from a stimulating diet and fled precipitately back to 
the flesh-pots of Egypt. The apostacy was general and 
thorough, and not only fixed those who were concerned therein 
in their old regime during life, but a traditionary hob- 
goblin account of the disastrous consequences of their rash, 
erratic course has had the effect to establish their offspring 
and all new settlers in the place in the old stimulating mode 
of living. Indeed, the cloud of prejudice which has been 
raised in Oberlin on the questions of diet and medicine has 
been not only visible and tangible, but as impenetrable as 
the gristly hide of the rhinoceros. No iron-clad monitor 
could more effectually ward off shell and shot than the peo- 
ple of Oberlin do the shafts of physiological and pathologi- 
cal truths that are being hurled against old Allopathic medi- 
cine and a stimulating diet from many a battery placed enfi- 
lade under the dawning light of the nineteenth century. As 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 51 



well might an attempt be made to penetrate an adder with 
sound, admitting the proverbialism of his auricular obtuse- 
ness to be a veritable reality, as to get the attention of this 
community to any thing new on the subject of medicine and 
diet. There seems an awful, solemn, studied, ominous 
stillness on this subject, as if there were a dread of encoun- 
tering an " inscrutable decree" or falling upon some "prov- 
idential arrangements" " rooted and grounded in the sover- 
eignty of God," which it might be disastrous if not sacri- 
legious to disturb. The cause of this anomaly is not to be 
found immediately in the sovereign people, where responsi- 
bility rightfully attaches, but in the occupant of the chair of 
Physiology and Hygiene in the Oberlin College. From the 
great confidence reposed in him — which on many accounts is 
well deserved — the key of knowledge on the subject above 
referred to, for the institution and the inhabitants of the 
place, has been confided to his keeping, and vigilantly does 
he maintain the monopoly of its use. The Professor advo- 
cates, by precept and example, a liberal use of the milder 
stimulants, such as animal diet, tea, coffee and spices, and 
does not object to a free use of the corrosive condiments, as 
saleratus and the like, on the plea that their power to injure 
the system is forestalled by a rapid transmutation as calo- 
rific material ; holding the Liebigian doctrine of the supply 
of .animal heat by a combustible process — heat diffused from 
a central iixe kept constantly burning in the pulmonic depart- 
ment. The combustion theory was not original with Liebig, 
but simply revamped by him. It was started by Crawford, 
before Liebig's day, but was never received into general 
favor by the medical profession, on account of its total inad- 
equacy to explain the diversified phenomena of animal tem- 
perature in the various forms of impaired health. If the 
Professor would diet his horse and cow in accordance with 
his combustion theory he would soon learn his mistake. We 
have in Oberlin our full share of bodily infirmities, disease^ 



52 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



and death, from the new born infant to ordinary old age. 
It is sad, it is painful, it is humiliating to look out from my 
stand-point over the mass of semi-vitalized humanity around 
me and contemplate the amount of physical derangement, 
suffering and premature death constantly in progress, with- 
out being able to discover from any available quarter the 
slightest indication of anxiety or inquiry as to the why or 
wherefore of this state of things. From those who sit in 
Moses's seat, down through the Gallios on the bench, to the 
hewers of wood and drawers of water, there is a severe car- 
ing for none of these things. The general mass of thinking 
faculty is thoroughly permeated and imbued with the idea 
that " modes of living have nothing to do with fevers," and 
therefore it is the dictate of wisdom — or cherished appetite — 
to live as you list, asking no questions for health's sake. 

" Eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." 

It is with me matter of unceasing and unutterable aston- 
ishment that ministers of " the glorious Gospel of the blessed 
God," whose business is to deal with mind in its most im- 
portant relations to the things of both the present and future 
world, should here and everywhere so generally ignore the 
fact that the spiritual man is very much under the dominion 
of the grossly debased and enfeebled carnal man ; and in 
their teaching they proceed on the assumption that men can 
shake off the vicious habits that easily beset them, and enter 
upon renewed life as if such habits had not been formed. 
Only last Sabbath my preacher in discoursing from the mem- 
orable words, " Strive to enter in at the strait gate," re- 
marked that " all that the drunkard had to do to qualify him- 
self for such entering was to arouse himself thoroughly 
to action, get up an indomitable will and resolve that he 
would never again taste strong drink, and the work was 
done." Is it possible that sensible men living in the middle 
of the nineteenth century do not know that the confirmed 



SPIRITUAL DEGEXEHACY. 53 

drunkard has no executive will power with which he can 
enforce obedience to a total abstinence resolve ? He does 
resolve, has long been resolving with ail the solemnity, earn- 
estness and force of which he was capable, that he would 
abandon his cups ; but his resolutions were mere ropes of 
sand swept away by the first and every wave of temptation. 
He can no more get up an indomitable will than he can 
create a new heaven and a new earth for himself. Will 
power depends on nerve power. Every specific or distinct 
mental function in its exercise has a specific organic function 
for its support; or rather the mental manifestation is the ex- 
ercise of a specific organic function, and this organic func- 
tion is sustained by nervous energy supplied from an inde- 
pendent central source of limited capacity. When this source 
of supply is exhausted, or nearly so, the organic function 
will be feeble in its action, and the mental exercise which is 
sustained thereby will be correspondingly feeble. I called 
in by request to see Mr. Arnold Buffom, the first President 
of the American Anti- Slavery Society, and found him on the 
steep declivity of life, with heart failing him. He had been 
a lion-hearted man through life, and his friends wondered at 
the recent great falling off in him in this quality of the man. 
The foundation of the indomitable iron will had given out, 
and that dropped the courage of the man. 

Drunkenness is a physical vice or an abnormal physical 
condition. Remove the physical defect, which is the imme- 
diate occasion of the habit, and the man will be as free from 
any propensity to intemperate drinking as a new-born infant, 
and much more so than some infants whose parentage starts 
them on a drunken declivity. 

The drinking of alcoholic liquors much short of the point 
of drunkenness produces most disastrous effects in some per- 
sons w r hen they are not the least aware of it. The Rev. Mr. 
Nettleton, the great and successful revivalist, was wary in 
encouraging any one to indulge a hope of salvation while in 



54 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

the habit of using strong drink, however moderately. He 
found it was easy for many of this class of persons when a 
little under the exhilarating effect of liquor to imagine that 
they were "rich and increased in goods and had need of 
nothing,'' when in fact they were very destitute of true piety. 
And there are other things besides alcohol in common use 
that play the mischief with the nerves, especially those con- 
nected with and forming a part of the mental apparatus and 
constitute the organ of sensibility, particularly tea, coffee 
and aromatic stimulants. How easy it is for men and women 
whose minds are pivoted on highly excitable nerves, to work 
themselves up to an ecstasy of devotion and warble out with 
rapture, 

" My willing soul would stay 

In such a frame as this ; 
And sit and sing herself away 

To everlasting bliss," 

while they are festering with " covetousness, which is idola- 
try." The general truth here shadowed forth — which is ap- 
parent to all who are favorably circumstanced and disposed 
to see it as the sun in mid heaven — is persistently blinked 
by a large majority of the teachers of youth and preachers 
of the Gospel. And any proposition or attempt to arouse at- 
tention to physiological reform meets with cold repulsive 
favor, except in a few favored localities. A public teacher 
and preacher remarked that he had rather be instrumental 
in the conversion of one soul than head all the reforms that 
had ever been started. I suppose it should be allowed to be 
of great value to be gathered from the world into the Chris- 
tian church as at present constituted, where it will puzzle the 
assorting angels to distinguish between sheep and goats. But 
how infinitely transcending the value of an occasional feeble 
conversion — put the sum of it as high as any friend of such 
conversion would be likely to estimate it — would be the gain 
of having a clean sweep made of the whole community ; every 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 55 



inhabitant thereof elevated to the highest pinnacle of physi- 
ological and psychological perfection, standing " perfect and 
complete in all the will of God ?" The leaders of the " sac- 
ramental host of God's elect" might inaugurate a reform that 
would lead on a "bee line" to such a result. They are com- 
missioned to this end ; have a grand chart of authority to this 
effect, containing ample and lucid instruction with regard to 
general principles of action, and ways and means by which 
the object may be accomplished. God and all holy beings 
are anxious that the event should be consummated, and are 
ready and willing to render all the assistance in their power 
compatible with man's free agency and duty. At any rate, 
the under shepherds should note and heed the fact that the 
responsibility of the world's conversion rests more with them 
than it does with the rank and file of their flocks, to whom 
they have been wont to impute a large share of the blame 
of tardy progress in the cause. 

But " the world does move," after all. There is one or two 
bright green spots starting up on the hitherto unheeded and 
uncultivated field or barren waste of physical education that 
is full of cheer and hopeful results. 

" Six years ago President Stearnes stated to the Trustees 
of the College (Amherst) that something ought to be done 
for the physical condition of the students, as well as for their 
intellectual and Christian character." In consequence of this 
suggestion and an accompanying recommendation, a Profes- 
sorship of Physical Education was immediately established, 
a commodious building erected, the necessary apparatus and 
appliances furnished, and this department of the College put 
in full operation. 

" The good results of this part of the College have ex- 
ceeded the hopes of its projectors many fold. During the 
five years that it has been in full force, the physical appear- 
ance of the students has made a decided improvement in the 
opinion of those who are not connected with the College, and 



56 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



the matter of self-reliance which the drill inculcates is con- 
sidered as a sufficient equivalent alone for all the expense of 
the department, enabling the student not only to Know upon 
what to rely in bodily force, but also instructing him how to use 
his mental faculties to their proper limits and teaching him 
when and to what extent he can rely upon his own powers." 
This experiment at Amherst in the physical education of 
youth, with a little extension, would of itself work a revolu- 
tion in the theory and practice of education everywhere, but it 
has a powerful auxiliary to this effect in the school for girls by 
Dr. Dio Lewis in Lexington, Mass. Dr. Lewis has associated 
with him in his enterprise of enterprises Mr. Theodore D. 
Weld, and other competent teachers, who axe heartily with 
him in his views of giving thorough development and force to 
the physical system of females. This is laying "the ax unto 
the root of the tree," and it will not require more than a gen- 
eration or two to shame the old modes of female education out 
of existence. The world has more to hope for from this nursery 
of physical culture by Dr. Lewis, in freeing it from "the ills 
which flesh is heir to," than from all other schools of every 
description based upon the rotten, treacherous foundation of 
physical depravity, without a single purpose or thought in- 
corporated in their plans or systems of instruction, looking 
toward a correction of the fundamental evil. 



CHAPTER IV. 

EEMEDY FOE MAN'S SPIRITUAL DEGENEEACY. 

In attempting to solve this problem or point out the rem- 
edy for our spiritual degeneracy, I will offer some thoughts 
under two heads : First, a fundamental principle in God's 
moral government, or the great law by which he designs and 
will ever insist that his rational creatures shall be governed 
in their social relations. Secondly, God's "line of policy" 
for "the reconstruction" of his rebellious human family. 

A Fundamental Principle in God's Moeal Govebnment. 

" What is the duty which God requires of man ?" 
Obedience to his revealed will, which is summarily com- 
prehended in the Ten Commandments, and " the sum of the 
Ten Commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our 
heart, with all our soul, with all our strength and with all 
our mind, and oar neighbor as ourselves." There is now no way 
by which we can with certainty test our love to God, es- 
tranged from him as we are by unbelief or lack of faith, ex- 
cept through our neighbor. " For he that loveth not his 
brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he 
hath not seen ?" How then am I to love my neighbor ? In 
the first place I am to love myself; this is implied or taken 
for granted in the command, it is obligatory upon me, else 
I am under no obligation to love my neighbor. I can not 
love myself too much, can not too strongly desire my own 
happiness, nor too earnestly apply myself to the use of ap- 
3* (57) 



THE TREE OF LIFE. 



propriate means for the attainment of that end. This is 
clearly inferable from the fact that my Creator has implanted 
deep in the center of my being an ineradicable desire for hap- 
piness. He would have me cherish and cultivate this desire, 
expand my capacity for happiness and keep it full to over- 
flowing. I have now a definite and elevated standard by which 
to measure my desire for the happiness of my neighbor, it is 
to be precisely like my own in kind and degree, no more, 
no less. " There should be equality." The activities of 
both social and physical life are promoted by an equality of 
instrumentalities and powers. In the human body the vital 
forces are greatly economized by a uniformity of condition 
among the organs of which the body is composed, whether 
the general state is strong or feeble. Force is used to better 
advantage under such circumstances than when there is much 
inequality among the members. So in neighborhood affairs, 
when all are on a level so that love can flow freely from 
heart to heart, it is much easier to maintain a firm friendly 
understanding and efficient co-operation in the employment 
of means for the promotion of the general welfare than in a 
community where some are rich, surrounded with all the con- 
veniences and comforts of life, and others pinched with pov- 
erty, exceedingly troubled to meet current expenses and 
" keep soul and body together." No other signification can 
with any degree of propriety be given to the second great 
command than the equality one here attached to it. Depart 
from this strict line of interpretation and all is indefiniteness 
and uncertainty. If one man may seek his own for self- 
gratification or aggrandizement, or for any exclusive selfish 
purpose to the extent of a single penny, another man may or 
will go a little further, and so on, until some men will see no 
impropriety in their amassing millions and millions of dol- 
lars, and disposing of their property as they please ; intend- 
ing of course, if they are professing Christians, to be what 
they deem to be liberal in giving to charitable and benevo- 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 59 

lent objects. God does not act in this loose way in ordain- 
ing principles and laws for the government of his rational 
creatures. Exactness and precision characterize all his deal- 
ings with them in regard to foundation principles. " Strait 
is the gait and narrow is the way/' are the distinguishing 
traits of the rules by which men are to govern themselves 
and be governed, individually and socially. Xo deviation 
from the straight line rule is permitted with impunity, while 
conformity thereto is always well rewarded. 

There is no graduating wrong doing. Men can not say 
unto it, " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." Trans- 
gression of law has not only a self-perpetuating tendency, 
but also a self- aggravating tendency. It is therefore folly 
for human beings to attempt the moderate indulgence of any 
practice not in accordance with the eternal laws of their be- 
ing. Intemperance, or a violation of the law of sobriety, 
furnishes a good example for illustrating this position. A 
confirmed habit of strict sobriety is easily maintained. In- 
deed, those who are firmly fixed in this habit by a long 
course of correct living, not only have no disposition or in- 
clination to break from it, but their pure sensibility revolts 
at the slightest contact with alcoholic stimulants. But let a 
community practice moderate drinking, or the moderate use 
of alcohol in any form, no matter how guardedly, and there 
will be all grades of intemperance from moderate drinking 
to besotted drunkenness. Some will have stamina of fiber 
sufficient to enable them to hold out against the constantly 
disturbing effect of the alcohol and maintain the character of 
moderate drinkers, while others will be carried along on the 
current of intemperance at all stages in its course to its ex- 
tremity, according to individual ability to resist the downward 
progress. So with regard to the golden rule. A portion of 
mankind have virtue enough in them to maintain a decent 
respect for it under a universal violation of its obvious mean- 
ing, and like Agur crave neither poverty nor riches. While 



60 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



a large majority of men are anxious to be rich, and thereby 
" fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdi- 
tion." Such is the nature and tendency of a breach of the 
great law of love. It engenders evils of every description, 
natural and moral, and to an illimitable extent. Lust of 
money and power creates and maintains the abominable 
system of caste, with its inevitable accompaniments of envy, 
jealousy, hatred and strife. It leads to overreaching, de- 
frauding, robbery and murder — in short, to every species of 
iniquity and wrong doing. It is indirectly the means of de- 
basement and degeneracy of body and mind. 

God's Eeconstetjction Policy. 

It is manifest that God intends to have a world of human 
intelligences that shall govern themselves, under his general 
supervision and by principles and laws of his ordaining. He 
made man a little lower than the angels, crowned him with 
glory and honor in the fearful and wonderful construction of 
his body and the beautiful complexity and capaciousness of 
his intellectual faculties, and left him under favorable circum- 
stances, with safeguards of a prohibitory and admonitory charac- 
ter, to the test of his fidelity to his Maker and established prin- 
ciple. Man turned rebel and traitor, voluntarily withdrew his 
confidence from God and put himself under the dominion of 
the arch Apostate, and thus virtually constituted and crowned 
this enemy of all righteousness god of this world, and thereby 
entailed on Adam's race woes unutterable, much of which 
is destined to be eternal. God, in infinite compassion to our 
race, devised a plan for the reconstruction of his rebellious 
human family and subject it again to his easy rule. He 
might with one stroke of omnipotence have annihilated the 
usurper, rescued man from his cruel fangs and restored him 
to his original position. But such a course was not in con- 



SPIRITUAL DEGEXERACY. 61 

sonance with liis wise fore -purpose to give the universe a ter- 
rible and telling example of the legitimate results of trans- 
gression of law. At an infinite expense a way is opened for 
man's return to loyalty, every obstacle on Crod's part is re- 
moved out of the way of his return, man still retains all the 
natural power of choice, which alone constitutes him a free 
moral agent, that he exercised in his revolt from his lawful 
sovereign, and yet when a general amnesty is proclaimed on 
very easy and reasonable terms and men are assured that 
" all things are ready" for a cordial welcome to a sumptu- 
ous banquet at their injured Father's house, all, with one con- 
sent, make excuse. Such is the deceitfulness of sin in all its 
protean forms under the influence of the arch Deceiver, that 
the Almighty Ruler of the universe with all his infinite wisdom 
and goodness has never yet succeeded in getting a single 
descendant of Adam, " by ordinary generation," completely 
restored to soundness in every department of his being, or in 
either department — for perfection in one part denotes perfec- 
tion in all parts — while a dweller of earth. But God's pa- 
tience and goodness are inexhaustible. He is still unwearied 
in his efforts to make man what he should be and place him 
where he ought to be. His "line of policy" for "recon- 
struction" is to constrain men by the exhibition of love and 
truth, under the sanction of judgments and mercies, to turn 
from their evil ways with as little infringement of their free- 
dom of will as is compatible with the greatest good of all con- 
cerned. In the early ages of the world, when Satan had 
lured men into the lowest depths of degradation and crime, the 
Lord was compelled to deal harshly with them, sometimes 
destroying whole nations, tribes and families. On such "fell 
severity." Under the Levitical or Mosaic dispensation many 
crimes were subject to capital punishment that in later times 
were passed over with comparatively light penal inflictions. 
God is never governed by a spirit of vindictiveness in his 
treatment of his rebellious subjects, nor does he inflict pen- 



62 TEE TREE OF LIFE, 



alties on the score of stern justice or the quid pro quo princi- 
ple. He is "long suffering" toward all who are opposed to 
his righteous government, "His loving kindness, how 
great !" " Come and let us reason together ; though your sins 
be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow ; though they be 
red like crimson they shall be as wool." Yet the Lord will 
not clear the guilty, they must bow or be broken. For the 
encouragement of such as are in any wise inclined to forsake 
their evil ways the Lord loves to put them on their good be- 
havior, and give them an opportunity to cultivate self-respect 
a-nd manhood. Under this " line of policy" our kind heavenly 
Father is gradually winning back a portion of his great fam- 
ily to their .paternal home. And when he succeeds in getting 
a small number of the returning prodigals so near to his 
great heart of love that they can feel its warm pulsations 
and be drawn into near and intimate communion with him, 
the work of a general reconstruction will rapidly advance. A 
prominent officer in the American war, whose name is now 
out of mind, predicted a year or two before the war ended, 
that when the rebellion began to cave in people would be 
surprised at the suddenness and completeness of its collapse. 
So with the great Satanic rebellion — of which the Slavehold- 
er's rebellion was but part and parcel, a slight vile excres- 
ence — when it begins to crumble to pieces the end will be near. 
Even now the angel having the key of the bottomless pit 
and a great chain in his hand wherewith to bind the dragon, 
"that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan," and drag 
him to his own place and securely shut him in, is fulfilling his 
grand and glorious commission. The binding of Satan con- 
sists in man's coming to himself or his right mind and com- 
plying with the whole will of his Maker, or, which is the 
same thing, rendering obedience to all of the laws of his 
being. In this position all the dragons in the universe can 
not harm him. The most favorable indication in this recon- 
struction process is that in this country the Government is 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 63 

'niiing to examine with considerable interest the long 
[■-fledged notion that " all men are born equal." And 

te of the prominent men in the nation are insisting that 
all men under this Government shall be held to be equal "be- 
fore the Law." And. as revolutions never go backward, the 

time must shortly come when it will be argued and admitted 
that all men shall be equal before the Gospel — be socially 
equal. 

A thorough and cordial embracing of this principle will 
bind the strong man and spoil his house. Here is to be the 
decisive battle between Christ and Belial. The aristocratic, 
unequal social principle, or selfishness, is the main pillar in 
the kingdom of Satan, and consequently he has expended 
most of his strategic skill and power at this basis to fortify 
and defend it. And this selfish principle has been so long 
held to be legitimate and proper in practice, when not pushed 
too far — and where can a line of demarkation between rea- 
sonable indulgence in the premises and excess be established ? 
— that it may, after the rudiments of the world, be claimed as 
a righteous principle by lawful undisturbed possession, if it 
was fraudulently acquired "in the beginning." While I am 
penning this article there lies before me a copy of The Eve- 
ning Post containing an editorial bearing somewhat on this 
subject, under the heading of '•'Woman at Home, or Work 
(■:/••>:. > Beauty." The article referred to is a critique on ;, 1 
Theory of Work to Life, as found in !Mrs, Stowe's Talk on Social 
Facts, in The Atlantic Monthly." A few extracts from the ar- 
ticle will show its animus : 

'•But when Airs. Stowe characterizes women of elegance 
and refinement as ' beautiful, fascinating lazzaroni of the par- 
lor and loudoii% who make their boast of elegant helpless- 
ness and utter incompetence for any of woman's duti 

would like to know what she understands by the term 
1 woman's duties V 



64 THE TEEE OF LIFE. 

" Elegance and refinement in a woman are the best results 
of culture and inherent gentleness of nature, and that ele- 
gance and that refinement is a chief part of the charm of 
home 

" If, as we must infer, Mrs, Stowe means by the phrase 
c woman's duties' the daily drudgery of household cares, we 
certainly must protest against a doctrine of work which dis- 
figures our mothers, makes our wives old before their time, 
and the hands of American women the surprise and regret 
of the beautiful 

" An ill-shaped, red-looking hand is witness that beauty 

has been sacrificed to utility Women need love, 

men need beauty. The passion of love in woman and man's 
passion for beauty are the two great and irresistible antago- 
nists of duty in the social world. Man's desire for beauty is 
as unquenchable and beneficent as soman's need of love." 

I have no breath of censure for friend Post for his advo- 
cacy of " elegance and refinement" in woman, if the elegance 
and refinement are pure and undefiled as they were in the 
bowers of Eden before the polluting presence of the Prince 
of Darkness blighted them. I would that those women who 
possess these desirable qualities in the highest degree had 
them amplified ten-fold, and that all others might be elevated 
to the same plane. My exception to what seems implied in 
the article in question is that these accomplishments should 
be made a specialty for a privileged few of the feminine 
portion of the race. And does not Mr. Post know that these 
elegant and refined accomplishments are as desirable for and 
as valuable to males as to females ? And does he not know 
that men need love as much as women do, and that women 
need beauty as much as men do ? Both men and women's 
desire for love and beauty — in a natural state — "is as un- 
quenchable and beneficent" as their Creator could impress 
them with. Herein were they created in the image of God, 



SPIRITUAL DEGEXERACY. 65 

God is love and God is beauty, and all his works are beau- 
tiful — "very good." No doubt Adam and Eve were sur- 
passingly beautiful, beyond our present power of conception, 
so handsome that no sculptor or painter on earth could do 
them justice in marble or on canvas. And when "recon- 
struction 75 shall have done its work, men, women and children 
will be exquisitely beautiful, and love — the identical princi- 
ple which constitutes God's essence — will be perfected in 
them. Then their happiness will be complete, but sexuality 
will have but small part or lot in the matter. Sensuous grat- 
ifications will have their place, be spotlessly pure and se- 
verely appropriate, and the pleasures thence arising will be 
greatly enhanced from what similar pleasures now are, in 
consequence of the perfected tone and purity of the sensi- 
bility ; but these gratifications and pleasures, exalted as they 
may be, will not come in competition with the noble, lofty 
and soul-inspiring joys that will be experienced by sound 
minds, in and by virtue of sound bodies, in the pursuit and 
enjoyment of knowledge. There will be much pleasant and 
sportive exercise for hygienic purposes, but in these calis- 
thenic employments and the pursuit of knowledge there will 
be no sex. Blissful, happy state, which can only be attained 
through God's "line of policy," strait and narrow. Yain 
are all attempts to climb up some other way. Intermitting, 
spasmodic revivals based ou a worldly "line of policy," 
"after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world 
and not after Christ," though they have their use will never 
accomplish the world's conversion. And now as we are on 
the eve of wonderful revolutions that are to usher in the 
"good time coming," will not the leading "women profess- 
ing godliness" of some favored locality do themselves the 
honor and secure the glory and happiness of being the har- 
bingers of the grand epoch ? Woman led man out of Para- 
dise and it is most befitting that she should lead him back 
again. This she can do and this she will do. The world 



THE TREE OF LIFE. 



wants a model of pure, simple Christianity, and a small model 
that can fairly exhibit the excellencies of true religion will 
be as effective as a large one. Therefore in any village of 
some note where " strong-minded women" of decided relig- 
ious character have a predominance of influence in the place, 
let them by well-timed, judicious and thorough pre-concert 
take hold of the work of reform and carry it steadily and 
boldly forward, without having the fear of this or the nether 
world before their eyes. In the first place they should de- 
cide upon a standard of female dress, in which they will make 
their debut as a signal for commencing operations, which 
should be plain, neat and in all respects adapted to the great 
end before them. If the " American costume," which has 
been prepared at a great expenditure of thought, skill and 
labor to adapt it to the purposes of health, comfort, conven- 
ience, economy and genteel appearance, does not meet their 
approbation, let them modify it till it does, or frame one them- 
selves with which they will be satisfied. In the work of ad- 
justing attire it should always be borne in mind that women, 
like beauty, " when unadorned are adorned the most." In 
the second place, let them make choice of help in whom they 
have confidence, who will heartily co-operate with them in 
the reformatory work, and treat them in all respects with true 
sisterly affection, have no " second table" for them or table 
in the kitchen. Consult with them fully in relation to all 
household matters pertaining to the woman's department, 
with a view to abridge the amount of labor and mitigate its 
severity, as well as a prompt and faithful performance of it. 
And in the prosecution of these inquiries, they may assume 
as an unquestionable fact that in process of time cookery will 
fall out of the calendar of " woman's duties," or "the daily 
drudgery of household cares," As was well said by Dr. 
Lambe many years since, " Man is not a cooking animal." 
In the primal state of innocence no cooking was done, and 
in the final state of innocence none will be done. But it may 



SPIRITUAL BEGENEEACT. 67 

be " good for the present distress" that the ordinary mode 
of culinary operations should in the main be continued, 
though a little acquaintance with modern physiological move- 
ments and their results will lead to essential abridgements 
in the labor pertaining thereto, and also to a discarding of 
much of its disagreeableness as well as unhealthfulness, par- 
ticularly in the use of animal grease. 

With improved washing apparatus, the use of steam or 
horse power, simplified modes of dress, together with aug- 
mented muscular ability and will power, the work of the laun- 
dry will soon be reduced to small dimensions and made a 
pleasant diversion rather than a hated drudgery. In the 
sewing department, Wheeler & Wilson, Grover & Baker, 
Howe, and others, will lighten labor and abate or entirely re- 
lieve from irksome confinement. Indeed, the whole range 
of " woman's duties" or "the daily drudgery of household 
cares" may be so reduced and mollified that there shall be 
no " ill-shaped, red-looking hands to witness that beauty 
has been sacrificed to utility ;" on the contrary there will be 
sufficient leisure, buoyancy of spirit, muscular force and vital 
elasticity to enable both employer and employe to cultivate 
an " elegance and refinement" that shall make a solid "charm 
of home." In pursuing this course there will be no difficulty 
in obtaining good, reliable "help," " honest and capable." 

If the gentler sex will take the lead in locking up to a 
higher level by Gospel rule, the sterner sex, " lords of cre- 
ation," will speedily follow suit, and by joint action the as- 
cent to the summit-level of human perfection will be pleas- 
ant, and made with a constantly accelerating progress. Means 
never compassed their end with more directness and com- 
pleteness than will the proper observance of well-defined, 
feasible law prove a perfect remedy for man's degeneracy. 
This general thought has been expressed before, and more 
than once, but it is an ideal or, with me, a prospective moral 
certainty that I never tire in contemplating, however much I 



68 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

may tire in the discussion of it or others tire in listening 
thereto. I take great satisfaction in looking forward to the 
happy period just before us, when the earth will be filled 
with the glorious compound of "beauty of holiness" — holi- 
ness perpfected ; and the holiness of beauty, " perfection of 
beauty," 

" Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth 
and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving 
kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth ; for in 
these things do I delight, saith the Lord." 



CHAPTER V. 

OPPOSING INFLUENCES. 

Theee are two sets of hindrances to the reformatory or re- 
storative process that tend to depress free inquiry and retard 
progress that may be well represented by the two little mon- 
syllables Can and Can't. 

Can. 

" You can be perfect, be just what you ought to be, it is as 
easy as to turn your hand over. You have only to lelieve, 
and the work is done. Moral character is predicable only of 
the will, the voluntary power, and this in its exercise is sim- 
ple — must be just one thing or another. The volitions can 
not be half right and half wrong, half Christian and half 
infidel. If you tvill the highest good, if you purpose to serve 
and glorify God it is all that you can do, you are as perfect 
as you can be for the time being. Your understanding may 
be at fault, but this is an involuntary faculty, not blame or 
praiseworthy. If you honestly and devotedly determine to 
do your duty to God and man according to the best light you 
have, and you are at no time conscious of swerving from this 
purpose, you meet the demands of the Gospel and should 
stand approved at the bar of your conscience." 

Here is some truth and much fallacy. It makes the head 
the scapegoat for the sins of the heart. The voluntary pow- 
ers must be held responsible for the judgment and doings of 
the whole man. And the whole duty of man is resolved into 

(69) 



70 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

faith, of which, as a saving grace there are degrees. Implicit 
or perfect faith, which is the duty and privilege of all, will 
secure perfect knowledge of and entire obedience to all right- 
eous law, produce perfect humanity and meet with a full jus- 
tification at the bar of conscience and at the bar of God ; but 
the hast unbelief or deficiency in faith is sin, for " whatsoever 
is not of faith is sin," and, unless covered by the spotless robe 
of Christ's righteousness, will exclude the delinquent from 
heaven, while a little genuine faith with Christ's panoply — 
which it will be sure to have — will secure an abode among 
the just; though final blessedness will be proportioned to 
strength of faith here. 

" To believe," effectively and prevailingly, in this dark world 
that lieth in the wicked one, is the hardest and most diffi- 
cult thing that man ever undertakes to do. This position 
needs no other proof than the simple fact that God has never 
yet been able to get the confidence of a single son or daugh- 
tor of Adam so entirely that there could be a working in, 
both to will and to do on the one part and a working out on 
the other of a finished character — one that reached the stature 
of a perfect man in bodily, intellectual and moral faculties. 
Paul, God's chosen vessel, attained comparatively to a high 
degree of faith, but he fell far short of being a perfect man 
or a perfect Christian. In his best estate, when he looked 
within and saw and felt the remnant of fleshly deformity, a 
law in his members warring against the law of his mind and 
bringing him into captivity to the law of sin that was in his 
members, he was forced to cry out, " wretched man that I 
am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" 
And it was only when he looked away from himself to the 
cross that he could take courage and thank God for deliver- 
ance. For special purposes Paul was put under spiritual 
duress, but in other respects God left him as he leaves other 
men — to his common, providential, " most holy, wise and pow- 
erful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their 
actions." 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 71 

The Can-ites have no just conception — and who has ? — of 
the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the inveteracy of a depraved, 
deceitful and deceived heart. They are not aware, at least 
not duly aware, that the voluntary and involuntary faculties 
are leagued together and all very much under the dominion 
of a depraved sensibility, which. is constantly crying " Give, 
give." A biased understanding makes out a plea of justifica- 
tion, the oft betrayed and too complacent will consents, and a 
deceived heart looks over the field of consciousness and sees 
nothing to condemn, while at the same time " the whole head 
is sick and the whole heart is faint." Under the specious 
garb of "verily thought" all was right, the reverend slave- 
holder of the deepest dye is a spotless Christian. The Mor- 
mon, practicing his abominable polygamy under the New 
Testament dispensation, is doing God service in the propa- 
gation of " latter-day saints." The maker, vender and im- 
biber of alcoholic liquors see no flaw in their lives, " their 
thoughts the meanwhile excusing one another." 

When I look within and scrutinize my " ultimate inten- 
tion," all looks fair. It is my solemn, my determined choice 
and purpose to serve God and my generation to the best of 
my ability. But when I inspect my life, I am not satisfied 
with it ; it falls far below the standard which I think Chris- 
tians ought to reach before they have been half as long in 
the vineyard of our common Master as I have been. And 
where is the fault ? Not on God's side ; he has done all he 
wisely could to perfect me in body and spirit And when I 
look around me and see standard-bearers in church and 
state, whom I know, as well as I can know any thing "in 
this dark estate," to be most egregiously deluded in respect 
to matters of vital importance wherein they ought to know 
and do better, the conviction is fastened upon me that in all 
probability I am self-deceived in some material points, and 
am ready to cry out, "God be merciful to me a sinner;" 
" Lord increase my faith." 



72 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

Persons who believe that it is easy to attain to. entire sanc- 
tification in the present state of the world and the church, 
are misled by " exceeding great and precious promises" on 
the one hand, and an exceedingly imperfect conception and 
judgment of things on the other. They read, "Ask, and it 
shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall 
be opened unto you." They ask to be sanctified, to be freed 
from all sin, and so held in a state of obedience that they may 
enjoy the consciousness of walking in the liberty of the Gos- 
pel wherewith Christ can make free. They know or be- 
lieve that they are sincere and earnest in asking, and they 
have no doubt that the Saviour is faithful in the fulfillment of 
his promises. Therefore the conclusion is jumped at that 
they are sanctified. They ignore the fact that faith, the faith 
necessary to secure so inestimable a blessing, is the gift of God 
and has to be worked, and by a long, laborious process into the 
hard adamantine heart. " How doth the spirit apply to us 
the redemption purchased by Christ ? The spirit applieth to 
us the redemption purchased by Christ by working faith in us, 
and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling." 
To be a Christian, a whole Christian, when "the world, the 
flesh and the Devil" are put completely under the banner of 
the Cross, will be easier than to turn the hand over — nothing 
else so easy. And now, amid the darkness that covers the 
earth and the gross darkness that coders the people, the Sav- 
iour is faithful to his covenant engagements. " His eyes, as 
a flame of fire," are over the face of the earth, and wherever 
he perceives a sin-sick soul looking to him for help, whether 
it is a nominal Christian, Mohammedan, Pagan or Mormon, 
his ears are open to its cries. And "a bruised reed will he 
not break and smoking flax will he not quench, until he send 
forth judgment unto victory." And every one that asketh 
receiveth, and all who seek find. Every petition is analyzed 
with divine precision, and blessings are awarded in exact 
proportion to the amount of genuine faith contained in the 



SPIRITUAL DEGENZHACI. 73 

petition. Therefore, " whosoever shall say unto this moun- 
tain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall 
not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things 
which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever 
he saith." Accordingly, a claim to the possession of an ex- 
traordinary measure of faith may be tested by a single item 
of fact. Does the mountain remove ? The objection to the 
doctrine of easy perfectionism is that it tends to encourage 
a conceit of what may be called papal infallibility, a spirit of 
self-righteousness. "We are the people, and wisdom will 
die with us." This is unfavorable to a spirit of free in- 
quiry as to the best way and means of escape from the wil- 
derness of sin, and the most effectual way of reaching the 
mountain of holiness. 

Can't. 

11 You can't attain unto perfection in this life. No man 
ever did and no man ever will. ' No mere man since the fall is 
able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, 
but doth daily break them in thought, word and deed.' Sin 
has made such terrible havoc of every thing within and 
around us, that nothing but a general conflagration or a pas- 
sage through the grave can efface it. Human depravity is 
like a mighty stream, if you dam it up in one direction it 
will break out and flow off in another. And i where is the 
promise of his coming ?' Look abroad and see what horri- 
ble iniquity is being perpetrated in high places and in low 
places, As it was in the beginning, so it is now, l the earth 
is filled with violence.' Defrauding, robbery, murder, in- 
temperance, licentiousness, cruelty of every description, fight- 
ing and killing by individuals and by nations everywhere 
abound. In the front rank of the best communities there is 
a general scrambling for wealth and position, to the depres- 
sion and suffering of the lower classes. ' The chief, end of 
man is to keep what you have got, and get what you can.' 
4 



74 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

What encouragement is there, therefore, to labor for a per- 
fect state of society ?" 

It is true that a surface view of things is exceedingly dis- 
heartening. The god of this world appears to be having 
every thing very much to his liking, not only in the outer 
world, but also in the Christian church, a body organized ex- 
pressly for the purpose of destroying the works of darkness. 
And just here we get the most appalling and disheartening 
signs of the times. It has become fashionable to join the 
church and thousands are flocking into it with all their in- 
signia and trappings of worldliness and vanity still flying, 
and there is not spirituality enough in any branch of the 
church to correct the evil. Even the Methodist Church, that 
once held a commendable position of non-conformity to the 
world, has been drawn down to the common level of other 
denominations by the fell demon — " mammon of unright- 
eousness." Still the church as the body of Christ has a 
broad and ample commission for the conquest of the world, 
and only needs some spiritual lieutenant-general, possess- 
ing much of the self-denying spirit of his Master to mar- 
tialize the sacramental host anew, strip it of its worldly ar- 
ray, change its line of policy, and lead it on to victory. But 
we are told to "Judge not according to the appearance, but 
judge righteous judgment." " A more sure word of proph- 
ecy" makes it certain beyond all question that this world, 
sin-ruined as it is, is to be cleansed of its vileness before it 
is burned up, and the time for manifest activities in the work 
of cleansing must be near at hand. Good jiidges of proph- 
ecy make the grand sabbatical season or the millennial period 
date from the seven thousandth year of the world, some hun- 
dred and forty years from the present time, comprising four 
or five generations according to the ordinary average of 
human life. God has his own way of managing his affairs, 
which is far above man's ways, and though his providential 
mill grinds slowly, it grinds thoroughly. 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 75 

Thus I dispose of Can and Can't. I admit no Can't as a 
finality into my Christian code of ethics. And my Can goes 
further than to a sickly sentimental perfectionism that leaves 
mental deformity, bodily infirmities and social evils much as 
it finds them. I can be satisfied with nothing short of a pos- 
itive, well asured conviction or absolute experimental knowl- 
edge, that I stand " perfect and complete in all the will of 
God," all dross of unbelief purged away and the exact im- 
age of my adorable Saviour stamped upon me. To this 
blessed state I shall attain in this then beautiful world, in 
my posterity, at no very distant period. And I trust, too, 
that with this vile body changed and made like unto Christ's 
glorified body, I shall be permitted to witness if not aid in the 
grand reconstructive process that is to consummate the glo- 
rious happy state. Though my faith for present use is de- 
fective and unsatisfactory, my faith in the ultimate triumph 
of a pure Christianity is without a flaw. And while I most 
heartily deplore my short-comings in faith and practice, I 
bless God for what he has done for me and mine, and for 
what he has done, is now doing and will yet do, for this de- 
luded, wicked world. And here I am reminded of a good 
brother once connected with me in the Congregational Church 
in Derby, who was accustomed not unfrecjuently, while lead- 
ing in public prayer, to thank God that it was as well with 
us as it was, even in the coldest and most gloomy periods of 
the church. There is no profit in despondency. "Cast not 
away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recom- 
pense of reward," 



CHAPTER VI. 

FINAL ISSUE, 

There can be but one eventual termination of v the great 
Satanic rebellion in which human degeneracy is concerned, a 
full restoration of the lost communion with God, a full-orbed 
faith in the Almighty Ruler of the universe and a thoroughly 
renovated humanity. It must of necessity, in obedience _ to 
the law of progress, involve a ne plus ultra human perfection. 
All the inhabiters of earth of human kind will "live and 
move and have their being" in the sunshine of God's recon- 
ciled countenance, and in his light they will see light. There 
will be progress in the growth of animals and plants. Infants 
will grow to man and womanhood, but it will be in obedi- 
ence to a perfect law of development, so that progress will be 
symmetrical and perfect at any and every stage of it. Knowl- 
edge will increase and abound, and this too will be in ac- 
cordance with fixed principles and precise rules, giving it 
the character of exact science. All will be taught of God, 
and no error can attach to his teaching. We are now in an 
advanced transition stage in the working out of the moment- 
ous problem of human destiny. Will its solution, which is 
near at hand, realize the blessed results above faintly fore- 
shadowed ? To do it, one thing and but one thing is neces- 
sary — to convert little i into great i", little exclusive self into 
great inclusive self. Can this be done ? Can mankind, 
steeped, double-dyed and habituated to selfishness and false 
pride, be induced to lay aside these sources of alienation from 
(76) 



SPIRITUAL DEGEXERACY. 77 

God and all essential good, and the procuring cause of all 
human woe, and clothe themselves with true benevolence, a 
noble, lofty, magnanimous pride of soul that Trill only be 
satisfied with having every thing done that can be done, con- 
sistently, for the promotion of the greatest amount of gen- 
eral good ? A superficial glance at antecedents would seem 
to preclude all rational hope of such an occurrence. But let 
us take a careful survey of the substantial scientific data that 
have a bearing upon the question, and see what conclusion 
they will warrant. First, from the humanity point of view. 
We know that all men, everywhere, at all times and under all 
circumstances, possess a strong, deep-seated, instinctive, con- 
stitutional desire for happiness, of which they can not divest 
themselves by any kind or amount of wrong doing. Under 
a terrible delusion that individual "gain is godliness," or 
may not be inconsistent with godliness, men are everywhere 
on the alert and eager for the possession of wealth. They 
will expose themselves to all manner of peril, by sea and 
land, to amass their " pile" of what they deem necessary to 
place themselves and families in an elevated and indepen- 
dent position. But heap up riches as they may, or distinguish 
themselves as they may, by any of the honors or emoluments 
that this vain world can afford, and the immortal principle 
within them, ever craving substantial happiness, is not satis- 
fied, and they still inquire, " Who will show us any good ?" 
And let man descend by an abuse of himself to the lowest 
depths of human degeneracy, with executive will power ex- 
hausted — so far as extrication from the specific condition to 
which his vicious habits have reduced him is concerned — the 
desire for happiness still clings to him, and let an available way 
open before him that seems to promise an alleviation of his 
wretched condition, he will gladly accept it. When Haw- 
kins and a few others, under favorable circumstances, broke 
the chain of intemperance with which they had been bound and 
formed a Washingtonian Society, with the design and hope of 



78 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

thereby rescuing their former fellow inebriates from their 
bondage to strong drink, scores and hundreds signed their 
pledge and joined their society. And if there had proved to be 
talismanic power enough in that junction to save poor drunk- 
ards, all the unfortunates of that class in the land would have 
rushed into it. But it is needless to multiply proof of the 
existence of the ineradicable, innate principle here contended 
for, it is too patent and self-evident to need extrinsic sup- 
port, for it stands clearly revealed in every man's conscious- 
ness. Nor is it necessary to look further on man's part for 
any instrumentality or motive agency to strip him of every 
vestige of selfishness, when he shall come into open daylight 
where the medium of mental vision is cleared of all Satanic 
mystification, so that he will be in no danger of mistaking 
evil for good and good for evil. Let him get a distinct view 
of the " pearl of great price," and he will sell. all that he hath 
to purchase it. Like Paul, let him get his eye fixed upon 
the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, has in keeping for him on condition of his forsaking 
all that he hath, and without delay he is ready for the sac- 
rifice — he counts all else as loss for the excellency of Chris- 
tian knowledge and experience. Let a man get a just con- 
ception of what true happiness is, or in what it consists, and he 
will pant for it " as the hart panteth for the water-brooks." 
All inferior good will be made subservient to this one great 
end. But will vain mortals ever get into a position where a 
clear discernment of the conditions of complete happiness will 
give the unceasing thirst for it sufficient power to elevate 
them to its possession and use ? For an answer to this ques- 
tion we must pursue our survey of scientific data from the 
divinity station. Prom the word and providence of God, 
we know that God is good, immensely good, and that he sin- 
cerely and earnestly desires the happiness of the human 
family, and has done and is doing all that he wisely could and 
can for their happiness. 



SPIRITUAL DEGEXERACT. 79 

When man had been lured away from his allegiance to his 
Maker by the arch Apostate and was "far gone from original 
righteousness," God interposed a wise and beneficent dispensa- 
tion of grace for the counteraction of the ruinous influence and 
effects of the wiles of the adversary and man's strange, infatu- 
ated perverseness. And from generation to generation he has 
succeeded in gradually bringing forward some portions of the 
race and educating them with special reference to getting a 
distinct and peculiar people, qualified to be co-workers with 
him in the conversion of the world from the error of its ways 
to purity and holiness and reunion with himself. It will be 
sufficient for our present purpose to come directly to the Amer- 
ican nation and gather some statistics in its history that may 
throw some light upon our inquiry. God manifestly designs 
to make this a pioneer nation for spreading light, truth and 
righteousness over the earth. The Puritanic origin of the 
nation was most remarkable. A company of men and women 
unsurpassed for every quality of body and mind essential to 
qualify them for grand achievements, was selected by Prov- 
idence and disciplined in a peculiar and rigorous manner for 
the first settlement of this country. And the principles and 
habits which these settlers brought with them and estab- 
lished in the hearts and lives of their posterity as firmly as 
the Plymouth Pock on which they first set foot is fastened 
to the soil, have been the occasion in a large measure, within 
a little more than two centuries, of the spread of the leaven 
of truth and righteousness to the remotest parts of the globe. 
And while the good seed sown by our pilgrim fathers in 
American soil took root and brought forth good fruit, and 
has been carefully propagated and nutured from generatiun 
to generation as population has increased and spread over 
an extensive field, the enemy has been unweariedly busy in 
sowing tares among the wheal in the form of slavery, intem- 
perance and debauchery, whose bitter fruits in every species 
of abominations have been abundant. 



80 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

At length, the Lord of the vineyard came down and beheld 
the cruel degrading bondage to which his dusky but. well- 
beloved little ones were subjected, and resolved on their de- 
liverance. True and faithful anti-slavery men were first em- 
ployed to effect, if possible, their emancipation by gentle 
means ; these failing, a costly, bloody civil war was permitted 
and prosecuted, which thoroughly uprooted the system of chat- 
tel slavery in this country ; for which, notwithstanding its soul- 
withering sacrifices, devout hearts send up unceasing ascrip- 
tions of praise to the Author and Bestower of every good and 
perfect gift. In the terrible strife through which this nation 
has just passed, the public mind was rapidly educated to a 
much higher standard of moral rectitude than it before pos- 
sessed. Faith and love were developed to an unusual de- 
gree. There were times when men were made to feel that 
there was a God in the heavens that ruleth over the affairs 
of men. Our Government was pushed up to the point of 
uttering through its coin what it had never done before in ' 
any public embodiment, "In God we trust." And such 
wholesale benevolence as was manifested in free-will offer- 
ings of money, effects and personal service for suffering sol- 
diers and freedmen by the loyal North has no parallel in 
history. And here it is in place to notice the extraordinary 
field of labor that is opened for the special benefit of this 
country, in connection with what are termed Ereedmen, in 
greatly increased and long protracted benevolent effort. If 
there were any grounds for believing or conjecturing that 
the African people could be descendants of the lost tribes of 
Israel, it might be very plausibly argued that God had put 
some of them to school in this country to fit them for grafting 
into their old olive tree, from whence they were broken off, and 
use them in conjunction with the Christian church for the 
restoration of " all Israel" and the conversion of the Gentile 
nations. As it is, they are a peculiar people, and are des- 
tined to act a conspicuous part in the reconstruction of this 



bURlTVAL DEGEXERACY. 81 

distracted nation, and to bear a prominent part in the con- 
version of Africa and other nations. The Freedmen are re- 
markable for their docility, meek and patient endurance of 
injuries of the most debasing, brutal and cruel character, 
strong confidence in providential destiny, and ardent desire 
for instruction and improvement of their condition. Those 
who go among them as teachers become deeply interested in 
their welfare, and largely imbibe and exhibit the spirit of 
their divine Master in the treatment of them ; and herein 
they present a bright example of practical godliness that 
challenges admiration and invites imitation. And the bound- 
less extent of the missionary field thus opened at our own 
doors, with its deep necessities and encouraging prospects is 
to test the soundness and vitality of American Christianity. 
The ball is in motion, and the two antagonistic principles of 
Gospel charity and petty selfishness are measuring their 
strength side by side. And although there can be no ques- 
tion with regard to the final issue, the contest may yet for 
many long years hang, apparently, in gloomy suspense. On 
the one hand there is large giving — the rich casting in of 
their abundance, and many poor widows putting in their two 
mites. On the other hand there is a fearful and most alarm- 
ing greediness for wealth. And what is peculiarly deplora- 
ble in regard to it is, that this unhallowed cupidity is as ram- 
pant within the pale of the church as without it. But the 
Arbiter of human destiny knows well how to shape the over- 
turnings of his providence so as to give successful momen- 
tum and happy issue to the heaven-born principle of Gospel 
charity which he has so marvelously infused into the heart 
of this nation. It will as assuredly achieve a complete tri- 
umph as that a little leaven hid in three measures of meal 
will work till the whole is leavened. If to secure this end 
another war is necessary, another war will be forthcoming ; 
fiercer, more extensive, more heartrending and destructive 
than the one through which we have just passed. But our 
4* 



82 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

indulgent heavenly Father will now try us awhile with his 
mercies, as he has been doing since the heavy hand of his 
judgments was removed from us, in the rich effusions of his 
grace and the consequent ingathering of multitudes into the 
churches of the land, to the strengthening of the hands of 
his American Israel. At present the indications are favor- 
able to the final prevalence of truth and righteousness. The 
sovereign people, the loyal portion of them, which comprises 
a clear working majority, are radically inclined, and are de- 
termined that right, at least according to the tradition of 
men, shall prevail. They will insist that all men shall be 
equal before the law. And when they have locked up to this 
level they will discover that there are immeasurable heights 
above them, which are attainable by them, and whose attain- 
ment would add essentially to their security, peace and hap- 
piness. They will begin to realize as they ascend the mount 
of observation, that " all men are created equal" in a much 
higher sense than that of political rights. That " all men," 
no matter how low they may lie in the scale of human de- 
generacy, still possess within them the germs of physical and 
intellectual greatness that are capable of development by 
suitable nurture and training, through successive generations 
to the highest point of human perfection, as originally de- 
signed by the Creator as the common standard for the whole 
brotherhood of man. As Christians grow in grace and in 
the knowledge of their Saviour, they will verify in their own 
experience the truth of the declaration of Christ, that "it is 
more blessed to give than to receive." Constitutional desire 
for happiness will urge them on with zeal and energy in the 
prosecution of reformatory labors, in accordance with wisdom 
from above, which will be earnestly and believingly sought 
and bountifully bestowed. And when Christians get a little 
of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy 
Ghost, they will no longer be content to dwell in ceiled houses, 
promenade on Brussels carpets, and lounge on elegant sofas, 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 83 

while a large portion of their brethren lie in the embrace of 
the wicked one. The work of converting the world will be 
handed down froni generation to generation with a con- 
stantly accelerating spirit of animation, fitness for the work 
and encouragement in it, until the joyful tidings shall ring 
through the valleys and echo from the hills, It is finished ! 

With what amazement will the men of coming generations 
look back upon the history of this nation for the last few 
years, including the gigantic family quarrel that has con- 
vulsed the nation, and filled it with widowhood, orphanage 
and woes unutterable ! And what excuse can be given for 
it ? All parties bear the Christian name, and claim to be 
influenced by Christian principles. All have a common 
Father, who is " infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his 
being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth," 
and who would gladly have settled all their difficulties for 
them, if they had consented thereto. If either of the two 
great parties had been on familiar, confiding terms with the 
Father of mercies, he would have healed their animosities and 
shed abroad his love in their hearts, which would have kin- 
dled theirs and enabled them to preserve peace, harmony and 
friendly intercourse. Both grand divisions thought they were 
right, honestly and sincerely — humanly speaking. Both par- 
ties deplored the misunderstanding or difference of views that 
was rendering them asunder, and both sides fasted and 
prayed much over their unfortunate situation ; and yet they 
rushed together with frenzied zeal, sword in hand, till riv- 
ers of blood had been shed. And the only apology which 
can be offered for this most unnatural and disastrous- conflict 
is that which should be felt by all concerned to be a source 
of deepest shame — want of confidence in God. But all par- 
ties were bewildered. Dr. Johnson, the celebrated lexicog- 
rapher, said what was and is literally true, that no man was 
in his right mind. The people of the United States were 
beside themselves. The North is verily guilty concerning 



84 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 



the sin of slavery ; not that we pursue it to the extremity 
that they do at the South, but we believe in the scheme or 
system of servitude, and practice it in various forms and 
degrees. Men of opulence in soft clothing employ day la- 
borers, men of brick and mortar, wood and iron, to construct, 
in the sweat of their faces, that ignoble badge of primal 
curse, their splendid residences, while they stand coolly and 
leisurely by indulging in a complacent aristocratic feeling of 
superiority. The costly edifices must be furnished with splen- 
did furniture, produced at the expense of much hard labor ; 
and families residing in aristocratic mansions must be served 
by menials that are regarded as belonging to a lower rank 
in society. Here is genuine slavery, in rather a mild and 
specious form. Chattel slavery, in its extremest and most 
odious and oppressive state, is but the culmination of mild 
servitude. 

It is now morally certain that universal suffrage will soon 
be the common inheritance of the male portion- of the Amer- 
ican people, without regard to the color of the skin ; and the 
female part of community will not long be excluded from full 
participation in a function so essential to a just and equita- 
ble distribution of the loaves and fishes among all classes 
and ranks of society. This enlargement of the franchise in 
both directions will tend greatly to strengthen the loyalty of 
the nation, and to insure progress in every good cause. There 
is yet left one awful, detestable and corroding plague-spot 
among the people — intemperance — that is to be and will be 
removed. The American Temperance Union is taking hold 
of the subject with renewed animation, vigor and encourage- 
ment, and will push the work to ultimate completion. When 
this source of evil is dried up, the stability of good govern- 
ment will be secured, and all other evils, the worst of which 
are greatly dependent on this, will be disposed of with com- 
parative ease. With the annihilation of intemperance, the 
prestige of the grand Adversary, now greatly abated, will 



SPIRITUAL DEGEXERACY. 85 

come to a perpetual end in this land, and a good foundation 
will thereby be laid for pursuing hirn into all lands and dis- 
robing him of his usurped earthly dominion. But, though 
the malicious and crafty foe of God and man is crippled, he 
still retains power and influence enough for evil to make it 
the duty and interest of every son and daughter of Adam to 
watch and pray and strive against his machinations. Just 
now, when this nation is rising into a purer atmosphere, and 
taking a loftier and nobler stand for God and suffering hu- 
manity, is the time for the wily Deceiver to summon all his 
forces and exert his strategic skill to the utmost for our ruin, 
or at least do us all the harm he can, and postpone the period 
of his overthrow as long as he can. As he can transform 
himself into an angel of light, his next great movement may 
be very different from what we might anticipate, and it be- 
hooves us to be on our guard and not be betrayed into an 
ignorance of his devices. The Devil is sometimes a great 
stickler for conservatism. He knows there are but two ex- 
tremes : the extreme of right, which is Heaven's extreme, and 
to the attainment of which Heaven exhorts, " Be ye perfect;" 
and the extreme of wrong, which he delights in and down 
to which he would have all men descend. And when he finds 
individuals or communities tending toward the lower extreme, 
he is not careful to oppose obstacles to their descent. But 
when they are inclined to mount upward, he expresses great 
concern for them. " Be careful. Men are inclined to ex- 
tremes, which should always be avoided. Get on to the gol- 
den happy medium, about half-way between extremes, and 
you will be sure to be about right." Now what the lovers 
of God and man specially need at this crisis is to make a 
joint, considerate and determined effort to get above this 
" golden happy medium," which has never yet been tran- 
scended by common humanity since the fall of Adam. To 
attain this most desirable end will be no holiday work for 
any number or quality of individuals. There is such a va- 



THE TREE OF LIFE. 



riety of views on all subjects or points pertaining to man's 
elevation, and snch pertinacity of opinion with, regard to par- 
ticular views and measures for carrying them into effect, to 
say nothing of the strong adverse tendency of long confirmed 
pernicious habits, that it wil] be difficult to get an associa- 
tion of persons to engage in reformatory labors with an eye 
single to the one great object aimed at — a perfect state of 
society — and to have them act wisely, efficiently and in har- 
mony. As men are free voluntary agents, every one will and 
should have an opinion of his own, and propose some course 
of action for himself that in his judgment, if generally 
adopted, would result in the greatest amount of good. My 
purpose and practice is, to model as correct an ideal as I can 
of what will constitute perfection on earth, and then " strive 
to enter in at the strait gate." Perhaps the best that can be 
done for the present is, for every man to stand in his lot and 
do what he can for the advancement of any and every cause 
that seems calculated to ameliorate the condition of our race. 
The most prominent benevolent enterprise now before- the 
community is the care and education of the Freedmen. Here 
" a great and effectual door is opened, and there are many 
adversaries." As reform in general moves onward and up- 
ward, a level will be reached where light and love blending 
happily together, will so illuminate and enrapture progress 
that henceforth there will be no necessity for effort to collect 
" material aid," or procure laborers for any reformatory 
work. Religion will then be able to stand and go alone, 
and Christians will no longer sing, 

" Jesus, thy church, with longing eyes 
For thy expected coming waits ; 
When will the promised light arise, 
And glory beam on Zion's gates V 

When Zion arises and shines, then will her light come, 
and glory will beam upon her gates. A little further on and 



SPIRITUAL DEGENE11ACY. 87 

upward another plane is reached, where humanity shines out 
in fair proportions. Faith in God and the principles of his 
moral government, and in common humanity, has become so 
strong in connection with Gospel brotherly love, that armies 
are disbanded, navies dismantled, and prison doors are 
opened. All implements of war are beaten into implements 
of husbandry, and men learn war no more. Love, omnipo- 
tent love, has assumed its natural attitude, potency and sway, 
and all asperity and opposition quail before it. When in 
my night visions, and sometimes in my mid-day musings, I 
get a glimpse of the all-conquering Saviour, as he is 
" lifted up" by a host of well-developed and lovely " living 
epistles," while "majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon his 
sacred brow," so that he can " draw all men unto" him, the 
general sentiment of Christendom respecting the millennium, 
or the glorious future of the church, seems very strange to 
me. The belief is very prevalent that there is a " good time 
coming," in which there will be a great improvement of the 
present unhappy state of things ; that diseases will be much 
fewer and milder, selfishness and evil passions greatly re- 
strained ; that knowledge will be largely increased over the 
whole earth, and that happiness will be more universal and 
unalloyed than it ever had been before. But I find none 
prepared to embrace fully the idea that sin, with all its deep 
stains, is to be completely eradicated, and the whole earth 
transformed into an Edenic garden, as if there had been no 
transgression of law. The Saviour has promised that every 
plant which his heavenly Father hath not planted shall be 
rooted up, and what he has promised he is able also to per- 
form, 

The little foolish planet that was seduced from its parent 
orb, after darkling through regions of bewilderment and 
gloom for six thousand years, returns to its old home, and 
as it nears the glorious luminary from which it had most un- 
naturally and wickedly broken away, and feels its yearning 



TEE TREE OF LIFE. 



attraction and influence, plunges deep into its warm gush- 
ing bosom and " loses all its guilty stains." 

What exuberance of joy will swell the breasts of the heav- 
enly hosts as they learn that man is rescued from the ruins 
of the fall and restored to himself, his Maker and his fellow 
man ! There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, 
and how will the celestial arches ring with the joyful tidings 
that all earth has done sinning; that Satan is effectually and 
for ever dethroned, and that Jesus reigns triumphantly and 
without a rival, "far as the sun does his successive jour- 
neys run .!" There is but a thin curtain of delusion between 
the advancing column of the sacramental host of God's elect, 
and " a consummation so devoutly to be wished,' ' or a bold 
entrance upon some of its deep and hitherto unfathomed re- 
alizations. And God's providence, fulfilling "the word of 
his prophetic tongue," is steadily attenuating that curtain. 
" Whoso readeth let him understand," 

But here stalks up the gaunt, ubiquitous, cold and heart- 
less Mr. Unbelief, pouring out his oracular pronunciamento : 
" ' If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this 
thing be V How are these mighty changes to be effected ? 
Will change of position change a man's nature ? Will join- 
ing a society of communists convert a selfish man into a be- 
nevolent one ? Can I not make as good use of my property 
outside of communism as I can inside of it ? It depends upon 
a man's heart, whether he is right or wrong. As a man 
6 thinketh in his heart, so is he.' If I give all my goods to 
feed the poor and have not charity, I am as ' sounding brass 
and a tinkling cymbal.' " 

Be composed, sir. You will have charity. When you get 
a little faith in God you will distinguish between Gospel 
charity and that fond affection that exists between husband 
and wife, and also that more natural and strong affection that 
prevails in parents and their offspring toward each other, and 
as strongly among the beasts that perish as among the hu- 



SPIRITUAL DEGENERACY. 89 

man species. Gospel charity is strictly a voluntary exercise 
of the mind. At first it may be simply a matter of calcula- 
tion, in which the sensibility need take no part. You have 
a neighbor who has rendered himself exceedingly odious and 
repulsive to you. You are required to love him as you love 
yourself. You can not love him complacently if you try, but 
you can love him benevolently just as much as you do yourself. 
You can desire and labor for his happiness the same as you 
do for your own. You circumvest him, unostentatiously, with 
innumerable acts of kindness. You get his attention, secure 
his confidence, subdue his enmity, and make him a warm friend, 
and you can " heap coals of fire on his head." The affec- 
tional nature now comes in for a share in the transforming 
work. There springs up between you and him a strong, glow- 
ing attachment of brotherly love, which you improve for 
mutual benefit. You consult each other on all occasions, and 
aid each other in the acquisition of useful knowledge and in 
the attainment of means for the promotion of your joint 
physical comfort and social happiness. Together you en- 
compass and bring to terms another neighbor, and find that 
" a three-fold cord is not quickly broken." You enlarge your 
community borders on the same line of policy, and with the 
same kind of instrumentality, and prove that " union is 
strength." Of course, you have the Saviour with you, for 
without his kind monition, and blessing you would not have 
engaged in such an enterprise, and without his continued 
presence and aid you would do nothing to purpose. Your 
example and influence become highly contagious, and spread 
far and wide. This is enlightened and sanctified Gospel 
charity — the stone cut out of the mountain without hands 
that is to become a great mountain and fill the whole earth. 

There is no mystery about this. Let any community hon- 
estly and fairly test the Gospel principle, as beautifully ex- 
emplified in the example of Christ, and in accordance with 
his teaching, and the cold, mistrustful feeling and action 



90 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

that now so universally prevail in all communities, and which 
effectually bar the human soul to those kindly influences that 
are essential to the growth and perfection of both body and 
spirit, would flee away. A little speculative confidence in God 
and common humanity to start with — leaving feelings to take 
care of themselves — would, after a while, demonstrate that a 
tithe of the care and labor now everywhere thought to be 
necessary to subsist society, with all the degradation and 
wretchedness inseparably connected therewith, would be 
sufficient to furnish all the means and conditions of xonfirmed 
health, long life, and perfect happiness. 



THE TREE OE LIEE. 



PART SECOND. 



MM'S PHYSICAL DEGE^EKACY, 
ITS IsTATUEE AKD EEMEDY. 



(91) 



CHAPTER I. 

CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN PHYSICAL LIFE. 

Human physical life is constituted by the union of a real 
positive essence, denominated vital principle with organic 
structure, " fearfully and wonderfully made." The entire 
body is composed of many parts or tissues of organs, singly 
or in groups ; and each, tissue or group of tissues has a dis- 
tinct and independent source of power, from which it, and 
it alone, can draw for its motive agency. Man starts in life 
with a fixed quantity of life essence, in an embryonic-ele- 
mentary or rudimental form, to be gradually and regularly 
elaborated and supplied to the different parts of the body, 
till the whole is exhausted in " a green old age," or until, 
by a violent and premature extinction of life, the balance is 
lost, The vital properties have their origin in the lower 
brain, the spinal marrow and visceral ganglia. The power 
of each division is transmitted to its place of destination 
within its own precincts, by nervous channels that pursue 
their own course without intercommunication with other nerv- 
ous channels. No kind or portion of the life principle ret- 
rogrades in its motion, or travels backward toward its source, 
but proceeds onward to its post of action, expends itself, and 
gives place to fresh portions as long as they can be supplied. 

A great variety of functions are performed by means of the 
vital properties, in virtue of their operating different kinds 
of apparatus. One set of forces makes gastric juice for di- 
gestive purposes, another makes bile, a very different article, 

(93) 



94 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

etc. In the little orbit of the eye there are many parts dif- 
fering widely from each other, all produced by the simple but 
most mysterious process of secretion. There are a number 
of different offices performed by the vital forces in voluntary 
muscular motion. In the first place, the muscular fibers, 
the instruments of motion, are charged with power by one 
set of nerves to give them the ability to act. A muscle thus en- 
dowed, with no higher law or power to control its motion, will 
yield obedience to the simple primary law of contractility and 
expend its energies in spasmodic action. To prevent this 
and make it useful, another set of nerves clothed with higher 
authority is commissioned to hold the muscular force in sub- 
jection to the will of its proprietor. But another and spe- 
cial nerve is necessary to carry out the mandates of the will 
and secure obedience thereto. And the muscles of volun- 
tary motion, like all other parts, must be supplied with nerves 
of sensibility to give them the power of perception — sense 
of feeling. Still further, there must be maintained a regular 
telegraphic communication between the muscles and the cen- 
sortum commune — headquarters of executive power — that when 
noxious causes are depredating upon that part of the vital 
domain, measures may be taken to abate the nuisance. Ac- 
cording to this estimate, there are five distinct sets of nerves 
connected with every muscle of voluntary motion. First, to 
empower the muscle to act ; secon d, to control the muscular 
force and keep it in subjection to the will ; third, to carry 
out the edicts of the will and secure their execution ; fourth, 
to impart to the muscle the sense of feeling ; fifth, to trans- 
mit dispatches to headquarters. Apply this reasoning to the 
arm. If its muscles are replete with power, they are ready 
to act vigorously, either with regularity or spasmodically. 
If they are but scantily supplied with motive energy, their 
action will be feeble, whether regular or irregular. If all 
motive power is lost in them, they are paralyzed. If the 
second set of nerves is in full force, muscular action will be per- 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 95 



fectly controlled and regular, whether strong or feeble, and 
if there is no muscular power to be controlled the second set 
of nerves is thereby rendered nugatory, whether they have 
force or not. If the third set of nerves, whose office is to 
enforce obedience to governmental orders, loses its power to 
act, the arm may remain at rest or move at its own option ; 
the will can have no control over it until its enforcing agency 
is recovered. If the fourth set of nerves is paralyzed, the 
arm may be pricked, pinched or cut, and it will not perceive 
it. If the fifth set of nerves, the telegraphic ones, are dis- 
severed or rendered powerless, and the communication be- 
tween the arm and brain thereby suspended, although the 
arm may have a sensibility of its own, a perception of injury 
that is being inflicted upon it, and manifest a sense of this 
injury by wincing or twitching, this unfortunate condition of 
the arm will not be understood at the fountain-head of power, 
and means put in operation for relief, unless knowledge is 
conveyed through the medium of vision. According to this 
view of our subject, there must be in the whole system many 
separate sources of the life-giving and life-sustaining prin- 
ciple ; but the properties of all the forces supplied by the 
separate fountains are probably alike, the difference in the 
results of their action depending on difference of structure 
in the machinery severally employed. The rudimental ma- 
terial from which the vital forces are wrought is deposited 
at the commencement of life, as has been already stated, in 
the lower brain, spinal marrow, visceral ganglia and ganglia 
generally ; for the nerves are, many of them, convoluted or 
wound up on themselves at convenient distances, forming 
little medullary masses like brain, and doubtless serve as 
repositories of power where it may be in readiness for draft 
as circumstances may require. These ganglia are the largest 
and most numerous in the vicinity of the most important or- 
gans. The elaborating and recruiting faculty situated at the 
fountain-heads of power, at the origin of the nerves, is very 



THE TBEE OF LIFE. 



much, independent of all the other functions of the body, 
while it is the stay and staff of them all. It has its own 
material in definite quantity to work up, and is not, therefore, 
dependent on the nutritive function for this, nor very much 
on it for its organic sustentation. It is always in operation 
by day and by night, whether the individual for whose ben- 
efit it is laboring is in health or suffering from impaired 
health, or whether he is awake or asleep, busy or idle. Each 
branch of the great family of elaborating faculties stands 
on its own foundation in the discharge of its function, ac- 
celerating or retarding its action, according to the demand 
upon it for aid by its numerous train of dependents. When 
the vital funds are made ready for distribution, they are sent 
forth and* distributed on the principle of simple elective af- 
finity. Eeference to a single department of the system will 
serve to elucidate the working of the functions concerned in 
the supply of vital force, and the manner of its distribution 
and use. The liver, like every other organ of the body, is 
composed of two sets of apparatus, the cardinal and recu- 
perative ; the former for making bile, the latter for keeping 
the viscus in good condition. The whole of the liver with 
its appendages is supplied with working force from a com- 
mon fountain, brought to it by one set of nerves, the hepatic 
nerves, which are ramified to the different parts of the liver 
and its immediate connections. In a perfect state of the sys- 
tem, or in a tolerably sound and healthy condition of it, every 
part and parcel of the liver will be well supplied with mo- 
tive energy ; the organ will be kept in good working order 
and bile will be forthcoming, of good quality, and in just 
the quantity that the present circumstances of the body de- 
mand. If at any time more bile is required for a special 
emergency, more is furnished ; when a smaller quantity will 
answer, less is produced. While the common stock of motive 
energy for the hepatic department is ample, the attractive 
call for aid by the dual functionaries is equal, and all promptly 



PHYSICAL JDEGEXEEACT. 97 

honored, whether they call for much or little, and their work is 
done up promptly and efficiently. In this case there is no he- 
patic difficulty, no " liver complaint," no "overflowing of the 
bile," no "bile in the stomach." When by a long course of 
transgression of law by gross living the expenditure of 
power, in consequence of a greatly increased demand for it, 
has so far exceeded the income that the stock in reserve has 
been used up, and the current income is not sufficient to meet 
the necessities of both the cardinal and recuperative func- 
tions of the liver, there inevitably arises an inequality in 
their calls for help, on the score of inequality in the pres- 
sure of immediate demands. One party calls louder than the 
other, and calls are always answered, if they can be answered 
at all, in proportion to their urgency. As it is of prime im- 
portance that bile should be furnished of good quality and 
in sufficient quantity, the cardinal function will for a while 
make the heaviest drafts for organic aid, and get the largest 
share of it, at the expense or detriment of the recuperative 
faculty. The consequence of which is, that although the 
bile continues to be secreted as usual, and the general ope- 
rations of the system maintained at the ordinary standard — 
so far at least as the supply of bile is concerned — and there 
are no apparent signs or symptoms of difficulty, yet the liver 
is becoming seriously affected structurally for lack of power 
in the repairing machinery to keep it in order. At length 
the organic lesion reaches and cripples the cardinal function 
to such an extent that the necessity for a thorough repair of 
the whole structure of the liver is imperative, and the call 
for organic forces for this purpose becomes paramount. 
Therefore the recuperative function, which has all along been 
calling loudly for reinforcements, and increasingly so in pro- 
portion to its destitution, now gets the ascendency in the 
scale of attractive influence, and constrains a large share of 
the available forces at their common center of power to enter 
into its service and make a united and vigorous effort for a 
5 



98 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 



thorough overhauling and repairing of the whole hepatic 
structure. Of course, the bile makers falter in their work, and: 
the best that they now can do, in their lax, feeble state, is to 
furnish an inferior quality of bile — sometimes in large quan- 
tities, drained off in a crude and acrimonious condition, in- 
stead of producing a finished article, as is their wont when 
in full vigor. There is now no lack of "liver complaints," 
" overflowing of the gall," etc. Various general disturbances 
may ensue, according to the vital condition of the other de- 
partments of the system — at one time, cholera morbus ; at 
another, a smart bilious fever, etc. 

The general tenor of reasoning pursued here in reference 
to the liver is applicable to every other considerable organ 
of the body, in form and substance; for they are all consti- 
tuted alike, in respect to vital endowment and functional 
duties. 

It has been stated that distinct organs, and sets or groups 
of organs, have their independent sources of power for their 
respective supplies, and for theirs only. But, in addition to 
these sources of supply, the essential organs have a common 
fountain from which they derive some organic aid, and es- 
pecially in cases of emergency, when their individual stock 
is scanty ; hence, these forces may very aptly be called the 
corps de reserve. They are transmitted through the branches 
of the great sympathetic nerve, and these are distributed 
to all of the most important organs. 

The following reasons are offered in support of the fore- 
going positions : That the living principle or essence of life 
is a positive entity or power ; that it is transmitted through 
the medium of the nerves ; that it proceeds directly outward 
and onward from its source to its post of destination for ac- 
tion, and does not return or retrograde in its motion ; that 
individual organs and groups of organs are independent of 
each other in their source and supply of power, and that the 
power is exhausted by use and needs to have its place sup 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 99 

plied by new forces, are all unequivocally proved by the sim- 
ple and vrell-attested fact that a divison of the nerves pass- 
ing to any organ suspends the function or functions of that 
organ ; while the parts between the division and the brain, 
or the origin of the divided nerves and parts supplied by 
other nerves, continue to be supplied with power and pro- 
ceed on in the discharge of their appropriate functions. Other 
proof to the same effect might be adduced, but this is deemed 
sufficient — conclusive . 

That the elaboration of nerve-power, the principle of life, 
is very much independent of the general functions of the 
body is manifested by every protracted case of illness or im- 
paired health, attended with extreme debility and entire sus- 
pension of the nutritive function for some length of time, 
that finally recovers. And, if possible, this substantiating 
evidence is corroborated by resuscitated cases of apparent 
death, of which there are multitudes on record. Persons 
have died to all human appearance, become cold and stiff, 
been shrouded, coffined and laid aside for burial, and in some 
instances, after a considerable period had elapsed, have come 
to life and recovered their health. These pathological and 
mortological facts can be rationally accounted for on no 
other theory of life than the one here assumed. And these 
palpable and telling testimonials put a triumphal veto upon 
some rather loose dogmas advanced by Professor Liebig. 
The Professor says : " In the animal body we recognize as 
the ultimate cause of all force only one cause, the chemical 
action which the elements of the food and the oxygen of the 
air mutually exercise on each other." "The only known 
ultimate cause of vital force, either in animals or in plants, 
is a chemical process." "All vital activity arises from the 
mutual action of the oxygen of the atmosphere and the ele- 
ments of food." "The life of animals exhibits itself in the 
continual absorption of the oxygen of the air, and its com- 
binations with certain parts of the animal body," etc. 



100 THE TEEE OF LIFE. 

If "all vital activity arises from the mutual action of the 
oxygen of the air and the elements of the food/' how is that 
activity, when reduced to an exceedingly low ebb, to be sus- 
tained and elevated when there is not vitality enough in the 
system to receive and pass through the nutritive process a 
single particle of food that its elements may be so blended 
with the oxygen of the air by the exertion of chemical affini- 
ties as to evolve vital force ? And especially how are the 
elements of food and oxygen of the air to exercise a mutual 
chemical action upon each -other in a cold, inanimate labo- 
ratory ? 

The Liebigian school in its chemical philosophy commits 
some woful blunders that are exerting a wide-spread devas- 
tating influence in the world. As I shall have occasion to 
discuss these errors, or the most potential of them, in other 
connections, I will here notice but one of them which Dr. 
Lyon Playfair characterizes by the motto, " Vitality versus 
Chemical Affinity," with which he heads a short article : 

" I have already stated that there is a constant conflict in 
the body between the two antagonistic powers, vitality and 
chemical affinity. In the state of health, vitality retains the 
ascendency and subdues the chemical powers, but this sub- 
jection is the result of much effort on the part of vitality, for 
the strength of the rival forces is nearly equal. The mo- 
ment, therefore, that vitality leaves undefended a single point 
in the fortress of the body, that moment the chemical forces 
begin the work of demolition on the unprotected part. Thus, 
if vitality be called upon by the superior power, volition, to 
execute some purpose of its will — to move the arm, for ex- 
ample — the vitality residing in the muscles of the arm obeys 
this command and occasions the desired movement. Before 
the production of motion, all its powers were exerted in pre- 
venting the encroachment of the chemical forces (*. e. of the 
oxygen of the air). But when it is employed in effecting a 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 101 

vital movement, such as that of the arm, it is no longer in a 
position to resist the attack of its antagonistic power. This, 
therefore, immediately acts upon the muscles, which obey 
the will, destroys part of their substance, and occasions its 
separation from the tissues." 

What a pitiful condition poor feeble humanity would be 
in, if this anti- vitality doctrine were true. As soon as an un- 
fortunate organ gets tired and attempts to rest the chemical 
forces are upon it taking it to pieces ! Fortunately, this 
chemical dogma is directly the opposite of the truth. Vitality 
far transcends chemical domination in its controlling ability. 
The inorganic affinities can no more prey upon matter under 
the seal of vitality than they can act on burnished gold. 
While any portion of the body is held by vital force, no mat- 
ter how feeble the tenure by which it is held, chemical forces 
must stand aloof. The inorganic forces are always at hand, 
ready to advance their claim to animal matter as soon as 
vitality's lease of it has expired. But the last vestige of life 
must fade away before the decomposing process can com- 
mence ; then the inorganic affinities take full possession and 
crowd their action to a speedy demolition of the lifeless sub- 
stance, unless antiseptic authority interposes to restrain their 
action. Physicians have frequent opportunities of witness- 
ing these transactions, as they occur on the transfer of a por- 
tion of animal structure from the domain of life to that of 
chemical affinity. The extremity of a limb may have been 
injured by frost, or otherwise, and the extreme portion of it 
loses its vitality. Of this defunct portion the decomposing 
forces take immediate possession and prosecute their labors 
with unabated analytical action, unless interfered with by 
art. Nature rallies her forces in the adjoining substance, 
where life still lingers and draws a line of demarkation be- 
tween the dead and living matter, and says to chemical affin- 
ity, Hitherto mayst thou come and no further. If the vital 



102 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

economy fails to raise forces enough to throw off the dead 
matter and heal up the lesion where she first made a stand, 
and is obliged to yield up more of her domain to the pos- 
session of disorganizing powers, she recedes in good order 
and keeps up the circumscribed boundary line until she can 
muster reinforcements enough to complete the sanative pro- 
cess, and thus bar the further progress of the chemical affini- 
ties, or give up the fabric to them in case of final failure of 
the powers of life. There is a general decomposing process 
going on in man from the commencement of life to its close. 
There is a compound function concerned in the building up 
and sustentation of the body, the synthetic and analytic, or 
composing and decomposing functions. The great nutritive 
function, consisting of the digestive and secretory or assimi- 
latory faculties, is in constant operation to build up and sus- 
tain the body ; and the great excerning function, composed 
of the absorptive and excretive faculties, which is as con- 
stantly at work in removing effete matter. By the joint op- 
eration of these two grand functions, the body is built up and 
sustained in its corporate capacity ; and its perfection in size, 
form and symmetry depends upon the integrity and activity 
— with a proper supply of building material and suitable re- 
gime in general — of these functions. Under the most natu- 
ral and healthful operations of the complicated machinery 
of the human system there must be a constant wear and im- 
pair of substance, some portion of every organ is rendered 
unfit for its place, and if not seasonably removed will im- 
pede, to the extent of its bulk, the healthful motions of that 
organ. While, therefore, the general economy of nutrition 
is properly and vigorously sustained, no sooner does a par- 
ticle of matter become disqualified for its situation than it is 
caught up by a vigilant absorbent, thrown into the general 
mass of circulating fluids and passed out of the body by the 
most convenient emunctory, and another particle of precisely 
the same size, form and character is prepared by the nearest 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 103 

secretory vessel, put into its place, endowed with, vitality and 
made a constituent part of the living body. By these syn- 
thetic and analytic operations a sound body, after reaching 
maturity of bulk, if the laws and conditions of life are com- 
plied with, will long retain its identity of size, form, weight 
and complexion, while at the same time its component parts 
are undergoing rapid and ceaseless changes, the most firra 
and permanent substances being renewed, according to 
the most approved computation, once in about seven years, 
and the least permanent in as many months. But in this 
wonderful construction and maintenance of our material fab- 
ric there is no " conflict," no " antagonistic powers." We 
are not based on so unstable a foundation as such unphysio- 
logical deductions represent us to be. All kinds of exercise, 
mental and physical, require the exertion and expenditure 
of power, and so long as the sources of power that lie back 
in the nervous centers, independent to a great extent of all 
the common functions of the body, are adequate to a good 
supply of the motive agency for the synthetic and analytic 
functions, there will be no such changes as the pseudo chem- 
ical philosophy propounds. In conducting her multiform 
operations, the vital economy makes just so much use of 
chemical affinities as suits her convenience, and no more. In 
the production of heat, in ordinary health, she doubtless turns 
the inorganic forces to some account, but does not depend on 
them for the supply and regulation of animal heat. And in 
impaired health she can and often does elaborate heat, with- 
out oxygen or combustible substance, just as she elaborates 
pancreatic juice. 

The chemical affinities are always subordinate to the vital 
economy. While she has control of the organism she reigns 
supreme and without a rival. She may be crippled in her 
movements by external violence and internal noxious agen- 
cies, but strong or feeble, she never admits any power to a 
participation with her in the administration of her affairs. 



104 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

It is all vitality so long as there is any vitality, and when 
vitality ceases it is all chemical affinity. Nor has the all-wise 
and benevolent Creator so constituted and arranged his prov- 
idential affairs, with respect to our internal vital economy, 
that this can be antagonized by any agencies except such as 
are under the control of our own free will and accidental 
circumstances. 

If there is anything susceptible of proof in the whole 
range of physiological and pathological data, it is that " vi- 
tal activity does" not " arise from the mutual action of the 
oxygen of the atmosphere and the elements of the food." If it 
were so, there would be no lack of vital activity ; there is a 
profusion of atmospheric oxygen and food is abundant, and 
therefore youthful activity should be prolonged ad infinitum. 
The single fact that persons are often reduced to extreme de- 
bility, and lie for days and weeks without any or but the 
slightest quantity of food, and finally recover, is proof posi- 
tive that there is some other source of vital energy than that 
of " a chemical process." Although it does not require as 
much power to sustain feeble as it does strong, vigorous ac- 
tion, yet there must be a constant supply of it in some quan- 
tity, as identical power is not long lived, but is soon ex- 
pended or used up ; and in cases of suspended animation, 
where there is to be resuscitation, every part of the body 
must be kept constantly charged with a sufficient quantity of 
the revivifying principle, both to secure reanimation and also 
to hold possession against the claim of inorganic properties. 
For no sooner is a portion of the soft solids or putrescible 
fluids entirely bereft of -vitality than a chemical process is 
instituted upon it to reduce it to its ultimate principles, that 
these may be used again in the formation of other bodies or 
substances. And decisive evidence that the decomposing 
process has commenced affords the only criterion by which 
it can positively be determined, ordinarily, that a person is 
dead. And no one should be buried until this symbol of 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 105 

death is apparent, except in cases where an essential organ 
has been destroyed, so that there is no chance for continued 
life, as in most cases of wasting pulmonic consumption. 

From the fact that mental derangement sometimes occurs 
in extreme debility, Professor Liebig draws an argument in 
favor of his theory of conflict between vitality and chemistry ;„ 
maintaining that the inorganic affinities have destroyed or 
removed a portion of the brain, which occasions the derange- 
ment of mind. It is true that in some rare cases of debility, 
and more particularly in the last stages of pulmonic con- 
sumption, the mind wanders ; but this is true of but a very 
small proportion of the cases of debility that occur, and of 
this class of persons quite a share of them recover the full 
possession of their reason a little before their death — which 
is fatal to the Professor's argument. The reason fails, not 
from disorganization of the brain, but from debility of that 
organ. 

My reason for a plurality of powers in muscular motion — 
a theory, so far as I know, peculiar to myself — was forced 
upon me from being unable to account satisfactorily or even 
plausibly for spasmodic action on any other ground. When 
I stood by the bedside of a patient afflicted with tetanus, who 
a portion of the time reposed quietly, the muscles of voluntary 
motion now obedient to the will and anon in violent spasms, 
I was exceedingly perplexed and defeated in my attempts to 
account for this distressing phenomenon on the one-power 
principle. To say that there was a sudden augmentation or 
diminution of muscular power would not explain the diffi- 
culty, for this power may be plus or minus through all de- 
grees of it, from the most robust health to the lowest stage 
of life, and there be no spasm. And with me the hetero- 
pathic doctrines of "wrong action," "altered state of the 
vital properties," "pathology and physiology (disease and 
health) express opposite or antagonize conditions," and the 
like, were obsolete — of no force. But when I contemplated 
5* 



106 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



a second set of nervous influence of a higher grade of office, 
whose duty was to control the muscular power and keep it 
in subjection to the will, all difficulty vanished. The set of 
nerves which provide this power had been more obnoxious 
to debilitating causes than had been the nerves which sup- 
ply muscular power, and consequently were not able to main- 
tain permanent control of the latter, but were obliged occa- 
sionally to remit their official duty and recruit their energies ; 
and in the interval of relaxation the muscles came under the 
dominion of the law of contractility, until the superior con- 
trolling power came again into the ascendency and resumed 
the government of the muscular action. 

The third set of nerves, nerves of volition, was suggested 
to me by the fact, as I conceived it, that the muscular power 
of the muscles of involuntary motion had a controlling 
agency over it, to keep it in subservience to the function of 
the organ of which the muscle formed a component part. It 
would seem from this fact that there must be a connecting 
medium between the brain and muscles of voluntary motion 
to secure their obedience to the will. The other divisions 
of the nerves and nervous power were not original with me. 



OHAPTEE II. 

VITAL ECONOMY, OE ORGANIC LAWS OF LIFE. 

Max's physical system, every department and portion of 
it, is constitutionally impressed and thoroughly' permeated 
with a disposition or inclination to do its best for self-crea- 
tion and preservation. Each organ is a law unto itself, has 
a depository of power of its own, and uses its power with 
divine economy for its own growth, expansion, solidification, 
and vigor, and for the prompt and efficient discharge of its 
corporate functions. The stomach has its independent head 
of power, its own building and recuperative machinery, and 
does its own work, which consists in constructing and main- 
taining its own fabric and the conversion of food into chyme, 
the first stage in the great nutritive process. In a sound 
state of the stomach, including the whole organ and its ap- 
pendages of nervous centers and their channels of communi- 
cation, every part of its complicated and important work will 
be performed with promptitude, ease, and efficiency, if the 
conditions of life are complied with. An unperverted stom- 
ach is an intelligent organ, understands its wants and can 
make them known, will manifest its gratification on the recep- 
tion of good substantial food, and indicate its satisfaction as 
to quantity — asking for more when the nutrimental element 
is diluted, and less when it is concentrated. What is true 
of the stomach in its insulation, laws, and general vital char- 
acteristics, is true of every other organ and group of organs 
in the body. They all have respectively their own way of 

(107) 



108 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

doing up their work, do it well when they are in good work- 
ing order, and have ample force to do it with, and fail of this 
only in proportion to their lack of sustaining energy. The 
laws of life are as fixed and uniform in their action as the 
law of gravitation or any other natural law. They are im- 
mutable, always tending toward the perfection, in every par- 
ticular, of the organism, whether the power which they sway 
is sufficient for this purpose or is greatly inadequate thereto. 
In this connection let me state for the consideration of every 
reader that there are two things which art can never do. 
First, it can not, by any possibility, expedite the elaboration 
of power, augment its quantity at any given time in health, 
or under impaired health. Secondly, it can by no possibility 
secure a more efficient and advantageous distribution and use 
of the vital properties or forces, as they become available to 
the different departments of labor, than would be made by 
the vital economy if left to an undisturbed administration of 
its affairs. Art may supply wants — except vital funds — and 
attend to external circumstances; this is the extent of*its 
profitable interference with Nature's internal vital economy. 

A kind neighbor assisted me in planting some potatoes. 
The potatoes were cut. I said, " Mr. Nott, ought we not to 
be careful to place these cuttings in the ground with the chits 
upward, lest the sprouts start off in a wrong direction ?" 
"No," replied Mr. Nott, "put them into the ground which 
side up we will, the sprouts will come up right." i But when 
the chits are on the under side, how do they understand the 
art of engineering sufficiently to give them an upward aim ?" 
" They were made to aim and go right — that is all the phi- 
losophy I have about it." Yes, they were made to aim and 
go right, that is philosophy enough. The vital properties 
were made to act just as they do under the circumstances in 
which they act, and they have neither disposition nor power 
to act otherwise. The highest possible good of the organ- 
ism in general, and of the special departments to which they 



PHYSICAL DEGEXEMACY. 109 

are severally allotted in particular, is the grand end always 
before them, and toward this end they aim as steadily as the 
needle to the poles. When all departments are in force there 
is good health, general and local. When there is a defi- 
ciency of working force, or less force than is required to sus- 
tain action at the standard point of health, the health of that 
part, or those parts, must be impaired to just the extent of the 
deficiency of sustaining energy. In a sound state of the 
body, when all parts are charged with vitality to the point 
of saturation, there may be a large diminution of force in one 
department, or in all departments, without derangement of 
action. But when the stock of energy is reduced to a bare 
supply for ordinary use, any reduction below that level must 
be followed by disorder — disease. Or, if when any depart- 
ment has just working force enough for ordinary occasions, 
it passes under circumstances which require more power to 
keep action to the standard-level of comfortable health, then 
disturbance of functional action must ensue. Here may be 
found an explanation for the occurrence of disorders of va- 
rious kinds in communities soon after sudden and great 
changes in the weather, and of colds, rheumatism, fevers, and 
the like, in men who are exposed in severe stormy weather 
by night at fires. 



OHAPTEE III. 

SOUECE AND MODE OF TEANSMISSION OF THE 
PEINCIPLE OF HUMAN PHYSICAL LIFE. 

All power of animal life in man originates in the lower 
brain and its appendage, the medulla oblongata. This propo- 
sition can not be proved by anatomical and physiological re- 
search alone, but it is fully established with the aid of pa- 
thology. 

Ammi Salmons fell from a building and fractured the spine 
high up in the neck. Power of voluntary motion and feeling 
were immediately suspended in all parts of the body below 
the injury, while the mental faculties, power of speech, deglu- 
tition, and sensation about the head, were unimpaired. Mr. 
Salmons lived two weeks in full possession of his reason. Dr. 
Edward Crafts was thrown from his horse, and had the spi- 
nal column fractured at the lowest cervical vertebra. He re- 
tained some sense of feeling down the front side of both 
arms, and in the thumbs and forefingers of both hands, and 
a little power of motion in the thumbs and forefingers. The 
power of deglutition, relish for food, intellect, and speech were 
not impaired. Dr. Crafts lived six months as insensible and 
helpless in all parts of the body, with the above exceptions, 
as if he had been actually dead. Facts like these — and there 
is a large record of them — demonstrate unequivocally that 
at least the animal life of man originates as high up as the 
lower brain or its appendix. And the further fact that the 
division of nerves in any part of the body destroys the kind 
(110) 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. HI 

of life that the divided nerves were destined to carry out, in 
the parts beyond them, is proof that the nerves pass on from 
their origin to their termination without involving each other 
by intercommunication. And these, and other facts of a kin- 
dred character, show clearly that every part of the body has 
to depend on extraneous power for its ability to keep itself 
in health, or to work at all. Common colds come from a 
low state of tho vital funds at the head centers of the nerves 
which preside over the catarrhal department. If there is 
cramp in the great toe, follow the bundle of nerves that sup- 
ply the muscles of the toe with controlling ability back till 
the source of difficulty is reached, and it will be found at their 
cephalic origin. A man came to me with his left hand badly 
inflamed and swollen, apparently on the border of suppura- 
tion. I prescribed a warm, soft poultice. Two or three 
days subsequently he called again with his right hand in- 
flamed and swollen, and told me that the swelling had gone 
from the left hand into the right hand. The left hand had 
recovered its natural condition, and the right hand was less 
fortunate, it passed through a tedious suppurative process to 
its former state. Nothing had passed from the left into the 
right hand. Both hands were dependent on a common source 
of power for their vital activity, and at that time their drafts 
for aid could not be fully met, and, on account of some local 
disadvantage s, the left hand was first obliged to succumb to 
the depressed condition of the vital treasury and permit the 
bloodvessels to abate somewhat of their activity and become 
congested, together with some other derangements. And 
when the hand was put at rest in a warm poultice, the scanty 
forces succeeded in elevating the action of the tired vessels 
sufficiently to relieve them of their embarrassments. And 
the right hand in its turn was under the necessity of making 
a manifestation of its state of insolvency, or inability to main- 
tain its entirety or soundness, and was not fortunate enough 
to recover its former condition without wading through a 



112 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

tedious process of suppuration. The subject was a hard- 
laboring man, and felt that he could not afford to lie by and 
give the impoverished vital coffers a chance for replenish- 
ment. Very likely, a few day sof seasonable rest would have 
saved him from a protracted and painful spell of phlegino- 
nic inflammation and its consequences, The suppuration 
was not a necessity of the system for depurating purposes, 
for there was no purulent matter or depraved humors to be 
removed until they were produced by disordered action from 
feeble vitality. 

EXTRACTS PEOM SlR Wl. HAMILTON'S PHILOSOPHY. 

I append the following extracts to show what advance 
modern physiological science has made, in some respects, over 
that of half a century ago ; and also to strengthen the as- 
sumption made in this work in reference to diversity of func- 
tion by diversity of organs in muscular motion : 

" The important discovery of Sir Charles Bell, that the 
spinal nerves are the organs of motion through their anterior 
roots, of sensation through their posterior ; and the recogni- 
tion by recent physiologists, that each ultimate nervous fila- 
ment is distinct in function, and runs isolated from its origin 
to its termination." (Page 400.) 

" All nerves from their origin in the brain are, even in the 
spinal marrow itself, isolated from each other. The cause of 
paralysis is, therefore, not so much to be sought for in the 
spinal marrow, as in the encephalic heads of the nerves." 
(Page 402.) 

" A homogeneous nerve does not, as a totality, perform a 
single office ; for every elementary fibril of which it is com- 
posed, runs from first to last, isolated from every other, and 
,has its separate sphere of exercise. 

" As many distinct spheres of sensation and motion, so many 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 113 

distinct nervous origins and terminations ; and as many dif- 
ferent points of local termination in the body, so many dif- 
ferent points of local origin in the brain. The sensorium com- 
mane, the center of sensation and motion, is not, therefore, an 
indivisible point, not even an undivided place ; it is, on the 
contrary, the aggregate of as many places — millions of mil- 
lions there may be — as there are encephalic origins of nervous 
fibrils. No nerve, therefore, in propriety of speech, gives off 
a branch ; and there is no intercourse, no sympathy between 
the elementary fibrils, except through the sensoriam commune. 

" That the nerves are made up of fibrils, is shown by va- 
rious anatomical processes; and that these fibrils are des- 
tined for distinct, and often different purposes, is manifested 
by the phenomena of disjoined paralysis and stupor." (Page 
405.) 



CHAPTER IV. 

MAN'S PHYSICAL DEGENEEACY. 

I come now to the gist of my subject, to show in what the 
infirmities of the flesh consist. Nearly half a century ago I 
became satisfied that the world, including physicians, was 
wofully deluded on the subject of disease, and that, as a nat- 
ural result, the practice of medicine was an almost unmiti- 
gated evil. By a careful scrutiny of views and observation 
of facts I was led to conclude that the whole difficulty under 
which the medical profession was laboring, lay in a false as- 
sumption that disease, or that condition of the system which 
is so called, was a positive antagonistic activity, aiming at the 
subversion and destruction of life, and should be opposed 
and if possible suppressed. I suppose no one will question 
the correctness of the allegation, that what is called disease 
has been universally regarded as an enemy to life. Such was 
my opinion of it when I commenced the study, and when I 
first entered upon the practice of medicine. Dr. Cullen's 
"First Lines on the Practice of Physic," the first book on 
medicine put into my hands, opens with the following pas- 
sage : "In teaching the Practice of Physic, we endeavor to 
give instruction for discerning, distinguishing, preventing, and 
curing diseases." Here it is unequivocally taken for granted 
that disease is a something that will certainly depredate on 
the body if left to itself, and should, therefore, be early 
" discerned, distinguished, and. prevented" from getting foothold, if 
it can be ; if not, it should be laid siege to and "cured" 
(114) 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 115 

The whole system of medicine is based upon the hypothesis 
that disease is in some shape or manner hostile to life ; and 
formerly it was deemed a very desirable and valuable acquisi- 
tion to possess the faculty of pathological discernment in an 
eminent degree, that an early and effectual remedy might be 
applied for the prevention or destruction of the invading foe. 
But in the last half century a great change has been wrought 
in the practice of medicine. Down to a little less than half a 
century ago, physicians were and had been for a generation 
or two on the flood-tide of " heroic practice." The order of 
the day was, " Take the bull by the horns." "Nip disease 
in the bud." " Take disease by storm when you can ; and 
when you fail in this, lay siege to it, and give it no quarter till 
you have routed and destroyed it." " When you go in to 
take charge of a patient, put Nature out of the door as you 
would a squalling cat." Now, physicians are disposed and con- 
tent to "wait and watch," and let disease develop itself — 
only stand ready to give nature a jog when she needs it. 
11 Hold a slack rein, but watch the progress and course of 
the horse, and be ready with curb, whip, and spur, to correct 
in season any unwarrantable or dangerous refractory move- 
ments." The whole drift of thought and action by physi- 
cians on the subject of medicine is in the right direction, and 
the faculty, and the world, will soon be ready to make a com- 
plete somersault and land on a solid scientific basis, with 
materia medica abated, and materia dlimentaria substituted in its 
place. 

Sir John Forbes, M. D., of England, has within a few 
years published a small work entitled, " Nature and Art in 
the Cure of Disease." " The error which the author re- 
gards as the great taint of medical science, and which he 
combats in the book, is a want of trust in the powers of Na- 
ture to arrest the progress of disease, and a consequent over- 
weening in remedial agents as the sole means of cure." " He 
explodes almost, by a simple statement of it, the opinion of 



116 TEE TREE OF LIFE, 

disease being a separate entity, destructible by the introduc- 
tion into the system of an appropriate remedy." (Ed. notice of 
the work) 

Although Dr. Forbes has improved his pathological vision 
sufficiently to see that disease is not " a separate entity, de- 
structible by the introduction into the system of an appro- 
priate remedy," yet he is still so much under the influence 
of old delusory errors on this subject, that he still clings to 
the opinion that diseases are things that should be studied and 
taken in hand. He states the matter thus : " Assuming it, 
then, as a matter of fact, that the phenomena which we term 
diseases have a character sufficiently marked and definite to 
constitute them individual things, we are not only justified in 
regarding them as such, but are authorized to take them in 
hand, as any other subject of investigation and do our best 
to present a complete delineation or picture of them in 
all their varying phases ; in -other words, to learn their his- 
tory," 

How much does this fall short of making disease "a sep- 
arate entity ?" Dr. Forbes thinks physicians are deficient in 
their knowledge of the " natural history of disease." A 
knowledge of the natural history of disease is important 
only as a means or guide to a knowledge of the nature of 
disease. This is the great desideratum of physicians and of the 
world. 

Perfect organization and firm health is the normal state 
of man. Every thing below this state is degeneracy, phy- 
sical depravity. From the summit level of corporal sound- 
ness to the opposite extreme there are three stages or grada- 
tions. 

First. Declension of power. 

Second. Functional derangement, called disease. 

Third. Structural derangement, also called disease ; pro- 
fessional wise, the first is called functional disease, and the 
other organic disease. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 117 

There is no propriety in the common mode of computing 
physical defection — that part of it that obtains the appella- 
tion of disease. Whatever name is given to physical de- 
generacy should be made to include the whole of it, first, 
second, and third stages. It is all a damaged state, alike 
needing recruit and replenishment. The gradation in the 
line of degeneracy, from the elevated point of perfect struc- 
tural and vital soundness to the commencement of the sec 
ond stage where functional disturbance begins, must always 
be a lengthy one ; for the distance between the two points is 
immense, and can not be traversed by noxious agencies in one 
or two generations. It would be impossible by any mode 
or degree of abuse to reduce a sound body to a condition in 
which fevers, pleurisies, bilious affections, colds, etc., could 
be manifested. The vital economy might be broken up and 
destroyed by a great variety of violent methods, and the dif- 
ferent parts of the body might be reduced by long-continued 
and excessive exercise to a tired, weary point; but the in- 
dividual organs could not be made to take on the ordinary 
forms of impaired health. There are men in this degenerate 
age — men, too, who fall far short of physical perfection — who 
go on to a very advanced period of life under a constant 
strain upon their vital machinery from noxious agencies and 
practices ; who never have colds, coughs, fevers, or any serious 
illness — " are never sick a day in their lives." They are 
proof against " the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and 
the destruction that wasteth at noon day." These men have 
vital force enough within call in every department of their 
systems to guard against injuries and repair damages with- 
out the necessity of making a palpable demonstration of un- 
soundness. 

Such cases, however, instead of constituting the universal 
rule, as ought to be the case, are but slight exceptions among 
the great bulk of mankind that are near the lower border 
of the first grade of degeneracy, verging toward the second 



118 THE THEE OF LIFE. 

grade, constantly liable, from a low state of vital powers, to 
be hurried into it. 

In this second stage or grade of degeneracy, we have 
what is called functional disease — a change from the nat- 
ural condition of the function of the body, or parts of it. 
It may be in the form of what would be called a pleurisy, 
fever, or other form of derangement to which the body is 
liable — some external or sensible manifestation of internal 
difficulty. 

What then do the signals which Nature holds out in what 
is called disease signify ? Deficiency of force, and nothing 
else. This is true in all cases, without exception. Want of 
ability to maintain accustomed healthy action is always the 
immediate occasion of any deviation from it. There never 
can be an excess of power ; for the more power any part has, 
the nearer it will come to the standard of perfect health. 
And if a single organ in its individual capacity could be kept 
charged, surcharged and sparkling with the principle of life, 
it would maintain a steady, undeviating course of healthy 
action, and that, too, without infringing upon the rights of, 
or in any wise prejudicing the action of a weaker associate. 
Sometimes the failure of power in one branch of a compound 
organ gives occasion to an extraordinary exertion or mani- 
festation of power by the other branch of the same organ. 
I shall notice this more particularly under the head of Analy- 
sis of Symptoms. 

A ship's crew, in an exigency, will very well illustrate the 
orthopathic* theory of disease. From the operation of causes 
beyond the captain's control, the hull of the ship has been 
badly damaged and is in a leaky condition. For awhile, the 
carpenters appropriated particularly to the work of repairs 
succeed in keeping the leak under, and no change is apparent 

* Orthopathy, right affection. From orthos, right, true, erect ; and 
pathos, affection. Nature is ahvays upright — moving in the right di- 
rection. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 119 

in the sailing of the ship — no symptoms of difficulty are yet 
manifested outwardly. But the men tire and falter under 
their protracted effort, the leak gains upon them, and unless 
their forces are augmented the ship will sink. The only al- 
ternative left the captain is to -order some of the sails furled, 
and send the men thus liberated from deck service into the 
hold to assist in repairs. Now, the ship's motion is a little 
unsteady — symptoms of disease begin to manifest themselves. 
The difficulty increases, and sail after sail is taken in until 
every rag of sail is clewed up, the men all below, and the 
ship is left at the mercy of the wind and waves, tossed to and 
fro. The symptoms have now increased to an alarming de- 
gree ; but it is the best that can be done. The captain has 
his eye upon every part of the ship, and understands exactly 
where the danger threatens the hardest. When the danger 
of upsetting from the rocking of the ship exceeds that of her 
sinking from leakage, some of the sailors are called on deck 
and a sufficient amount of sail put upon the ship to steady 
her and obviate the danger of capsizing. As the danger from 
this quarter abates, and the leak is still progressing and 
threatening, the hands return again to their task in the hold, 
and so back and forth till the repairs are brought to a sat- 
isfactory conclusion, and then the ship is put under full sail 
and proceeds on her course — the symptoms disappear, health 
is restored. 

I have seen a very good counterpart of the above illus- 
tration, the latter part of it, where the sailors are passed 
back and forth as danger threatens successively above and 
below, acted out in cases of epilepsy in a striking manner. 
In these cases the difficulty consists in a gradual cumulation 
of little injuries, long and oft repeated, upon the fine, delicate 
texture of the interior portion of the brain, which Nature 
has not been able to cancel with current appropriations of 
power to that part. Life is threatened, and something must 
be done to repair damages. For this purpose a draft is 



120 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

made for power upon parts involving the large bloodvessels 
of the brain. In consequence of this draft these vessels are 
enfeebled, the blood congests in them, presses upon the brain, 
prevents the free egress of the nervous influence which con- 
stitutes the fit. As the pressure of the brain from the con- 
tinuance of the fit becomes a paramount source of danger, 
the forces are remanded to the large vessels, the blood is 
passed on, and the fit is temporarily suspended. The work 
within is not finished, another draft or diversion of power is 
made, and the fit returns, This alternation of diversion and 
restoration of power is continued until the difficulty is re- 
moved and the man restored to health, or the difficulty proves 
to be insurmountable, the forces become exhausted, and the 
man dies. Ordinarily one renovating paroxysm does up the 
work for the time. But in some cases a number are re- 
quired. In one case which I attended the man had seven 
fits in regular succession, harder and harder or more and 
more protracted, and the intervals shorter and shorter to the 
seventh, which subsided into complete apoplexy; this con- 
tinued for twelve hours — the man was then restored to a 
much better state of health than he had enjoyed before for 
months. In this case, as the brain became accommo- 
dated to the pressure that was made upon it, the last par- 
oxysm was permitted to continue until the reparative work 
was done. 

In the pathological ship the sailors and ship carpenters are 
interchangeable, as I have represented by a reference to the 
liver, where both cardinal and recuperative functions draw 
from one repository common to the whole organ. 

In the foregoing nautical .hypothesis but one ship has been 
noticed ; there are others in company with her, forming quite 
a fleet, all under the command of one admiral or supreme 
head, with subordinate officers for each individual ship, each 
and all animated and actuated by one spirit or general or- 
thopathic principle — binding them to do what they can to 



PHYSICAL DJSGJElfUBACY. 121 

sustain their respective charges and their joint interest. 
There is no direct communication between the several vessels 
constituting the fleet, so that they can transfer hands from 
one to the other in times of peril, but the flag-ship keeps 
open communication with the leading ships of the squadron, 
and furnishes them with forces as they need, while she has 
them to spare ; when she has not, they are obliged to fall 
back upon their own resources. 

In the common acceptation of the term, disease is made to 
consist in the signals which Nature is obliged to hang out 
when she is reduced to great straits. One medical author 
says, " Disease may be said to consist in the totality of its 
symptoms." The late eminent Dr. Smith of the New Ha- 
ven Medical College said, " The symptoms constitute the dis- 
ease, or all we know of it." This accords with the preva- 
lent notion entertained with respect to it by all classes of 
persons. If a man appears well and feels well that is enough, 
no matter if he is on the brink of the grave, the essential 
organs so damaged and bankrupt in vital funds that as soon 
as they begin to falter the whole vital economy is at once 
broken up and the wheels of life stop. And if a person is 
sick the anxiety is to get rid of the symptoms, and against 
these all the artillery of medicine is directed, and when these 
disappear, no one stops to inquire whether the occasion 
of the symptoms is removed or not. It will be well fov 
the reader of these pages to keep this view of the subject 
in mind, or he will be liable to misunderstand me on im- 
portant points. 

When I say that disease is not " a process of purification and 
reparation," I have reference to what is generally understood 
by that word, and mean that the assemblage of action that 
now deviates from the natural state is not concerned in a 
renovating work. To make this plain, turn to the nautical 
illustration. The popular notion is, that " disease consists in 
the totality of the symptoms." Here we have diseased ac- 
6 



122 THE TREE OF LIFE, 

tion represented by the irregular jerking motion of the ship 
and the rough, uncomfortable state of things on board, and 
I say that, viewed in this light, disease is not a reparative 
work, for this external demonstration simply denotes defi- 
ciency of force. Place hands enough on deck to unfurl the 
the sails and get the ship under way, and the symptoms van- 
ish. The reparative work is being done below, out of sight, 
and no account is made of this, while what is esteemed as 
the sum total of the difficulty is mere feeble vitality result-, 
ing from the abstraction or diversion of power to aid in the 
recuperative work. Make the term " disease,'' or whatever 
word may be used for the designation of the difficulty, in- 
clude the whole series of actions embracing the occult dis- 
pensation of force, and there can be no objection to its being 
called a renovating work. This is my method of charac- 
terizing it. 

Suppose the supercargo of the ship, holding the common 
view of disease, and alarmed at the appalling aspect of things 
on the deck of his ship, should call a nautical doctor on board 
to restore order. "Yes," says the doctor, "this phenome- 
nal demonstration is the thing that we have to contend with, 
this is the disease, and as disease is wrong action, to be dep- 
recated and subdued as soon as it can be, we must employ 
our counteracting forces here." The doctor has learned that 
rocking the ship, threatening to capsize it, is the best way to 
make a smart impression upon the disease and improve the 
symptoms. Accordingly, he commences a set of operations 
that soon promises to be successful. The captain says to his 
hands, " Boys, some of you must leave your work below — 
go on deck and get up sail enough to steady the ship, or that 
land-lubber of a doctor will have us on our beam ends, and 
if we must go into Davy Jones's locker, we may as well sink 
and go straight down as to be overset and whirled down in 
that style." 

There is no end to the shifts which Nature is obliged to 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 123 

make, in order to meet and remedy the difficulties that are 
constantly occurring in some portion or other of her extensive 
and complex physical structure, through violations of the 
laws of life. Every organ and part of an organ is liable to 
derangement from a reduction of its sustaining energy ; and 
the manifestations, or external symbolic announcements of 
the defective state of the part or parts, will depend on the na- 
ture and functional character of the part or parts affected, the 
degree in deficiency of vital power, and the nature and amount 
of force present and in operation of impeding and disturbing 
causes and circumstances. Sometimes the pathological ship 
has to make her way through a narrow defile, under a full 
press of sail. At another time, she winds her way through 
devious channels to escape a lee shore, and get into an open 
sea. In this passage there will be frequent change in the ex- 
ternal phenomenal display or symptoms — jibing and counter 
jibing ; reefing and shaking out reefs ; hauling close by the 
wind, or going free before it, or scudding under close-reefed 
topsails, etc. etc. In some cases, the ship merely lies by to 
rest the hands. The ship is stout and in good condition, and 
the hands are hale and hearty, but just now enfeebled by 
protracted and excessive labor, and only need a few hours of 
repose for recruiting their energies. 

Structural derangement, or organic disease, is the third and 
last stage or grade of man's physical degeneracy. It results 
from functional derangement, as functional derangements re- 
sult from deficiency of force. Every part of the body is sus- 
ceptible of change in its substance from its natural state, to a 
greater or less extent. When the recuperative department of 
an organ fails to get power enough to remove the particles of 
matter pertaining to any part of the organ as fast as they 
become unfit for their place, and supply their places with new 
well-formed particles, a change of structure ensues. And 
sometimes crippled reparative machinery, from a combination 
of imperfect absorption and imperfect secretion, makes 



124 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 



strange work of living structure. In functional derange- 
ment there is ordinarily more or less of change in structure ; 
but as this is only temporary, the parts being soon restored 
to the natural state, it is not regarded by the medical faculty 
as organic disease. This term is applied only to cases of de- 
rangement in structural appearance : that have obtained con- 
siderable prominence or permanence. Perhaps the liver is 
as often organically affected as any other essential organ of 
the body. Of the extraordinary cases of hepatic deformity 
that have fallen under my observation, I will mention two. 
In one, the liver was about twice its natural size — soft, spongy, 
and of a light ash color, resembling lungs or the lights of 
animals. In the other instance, the liver was not far from its 
natural size and shape ; but on cutting through it the sub- 
stance was hard and gristly, or cartilaginous. Ossification had 
commenced at numerous points a little distant from each 
other all through the viscus, and spread in circular form till 
the diverging rings met and were merged in each other. The 
central points were the hardest and lightest colored, being as 
firm as cartilage and of the same color, and softer and darker, 
progressively, in the diverging circles, giving a cut surface a 
motley appearance. The biliary function had been completely 
involved in the induration and destroyed by it. For such 
derangements there is no remedy, natural or artificial. The 
heart is subject to a variety of structural changes ; but its 
palpitations are much more frequently functional than struc- 
tural difficulties, and much less frequently organic than they 
are reputed to be. 

Glands are subject to enlargement and induration ; some- 
times readily recovered from by a natural process, while in 
other instances there is no remedy for them but in their ex- 
tirpation. 



PHYSICAL VEGEXEBACY. 125 



Retrospect of the Steps or Stages of Descext eeox Vig- 
orous Heieth to the Desteuctiox oe a Paet oh Paets, 
oe oe the Whole Body, through Oegaxic Disoeeee. 

The first grade consists in reduction of power. No por- 
tion of the human system can be compelled or induced to 
take on disordered action until its energies have been re- 
duced to a certain point ; and the derangement will cease as 
soon as the energies rise again above that point, as surely as 
a plate of the best tempered steel will recover its rectilineal 
position when the distorting force that has curbed it from 
the straight line is removed. 

First, then, there must be exhaustion of power to certain 
limits before there can be derangement of functional action. 
And the deranged functional action must be continued and 
still more enfeebled, before there can be structural derange- 
ment. And in the restoration of parts to soundness that are 
organically affected— where restoration is possible — the as- 
cent must be made through the same line of grades that the 
descent passed through. 

Enfeebled vessels must recover tone enough to remove de- 
formities ; then continue to gather strength to restore* and es- 
tablish firmly their own action at its normal standard ; and, 
lastly, replenish their exhausted coffers with a stock of vital 
force as capital, to be held in readiness for future emergen- 
cies. 

Structural disease is not always a harbinger of death, nor 
often ; nor is functional derangement or disordered action al- 
ways a precursor of the extinction of life. In some instances 
a number of the essential organs become bankrupt in vital 
funds at the same time and instantly yield up their respective 
functions, and the whole body is at rest before there is time 
for any morbid change either of function or substance, and 
physicians ply their autoptic art to little purpose for the dis- 
covery of the cause of death. But the doctors have been so 



126 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

long in the habit of regarding disease as " a monster of such. 
hideous mien," that they expect to find him ensconced after 
death in some "of the deep organs." A few years since, I was 
present at the post mortem examination of a young man who 
had died with — not by — consumption. The dissector opened 
to an abscess of some size in the lungs. "There," says he, 
" is cause enough of death ; there is no need of looking any 
further." But how came the abscess there ? It was an effect, 
like all the other morbid conditions which the case presented, 
not a cause. 

At the close of some of the malignant diseases, particu- 
larly of small-pox, the whole body becomes much swollen 
and putrescent, so much so as to be an object of loathing. 
One might say, " Surely, there is cause enough for death. 
How can the man live, when he is nothing but a mass of pu- 
trefaction ?" Yet some of these cases do recover from con- 
ditions almost as unpromising, apparently, as if death had 
actually intervened. The mass of effete matter is now an 
occasion of feebleness, indirectly exhaustive of power, and it 
will require much force to remove it. An aneurism of a large 
artery may burst and the man bleed to death, and the aneu- 
rism thereby becomes the occasion of death. Mr. Isaac Hin- 
man, merchant and prominent citizen of Bridgeport, Conn., 
declined gradually and died. Post mortem examination 
showed that the pylorus, lower orifice of the stomach, was 
ossified, was a bony ring nearly closing the passage from the 
stomach. This was the occasion of the man's death. It is 
important to distinguish between cause and effect, cause and 
occasion, if we would ever get at foundation principles and 
open the way for the elevation of poor suffering humanity 
from its horrible degeneracy. What produces the immediate 
occasion of death ? This is not a self-created destroyer of 
life. And of what use is it to find out what is blocking the 
wheels of life, unless you can find out the sources of the 
blocking and remove them ? The remote causes — noxious 



PHYSICAL BEGENERACT 127 

substances and vicious practices — that induce physical de- 
generacy can be avoided, and the system saved from func- 
tional and structural disorder ; but when organic function has 
been so far and so long outraged that structure is damaged 
as an inevitable sequence, the offense must be expiated imvi- 
cariously. 



OHAPTEE V. 

PKEDISPOSITXON TO DISEASE. 

The term disease has always been associated in the mind 
with the idea of antagonism to life, and this antagonizing ten- 
dency has been likened to a house on fire, a spoiled herring in a 
barrel of fish, leaven in a vessel of meal, a bohun upas seed germ- 
inating among important vital organs, etc., implying distinctly 
that death was in embryo, and unless seasonably extirpated or 
destroyed it would gain strength and mature to the destruc- 
tion of life. According to this view of disease, it has been 
held that that constitution or condition of the solids or fluids, 
or both, that favored or disposed to pugnacious or baneful 
action, was a predisposition to disease. As Orthopathy rejects 
in toto the idea of a wrong or antagonizing tendency in dis- 
ease, it equally rejects the belief in a predisposing tendency 
of the living solids or fluids to destroy life — to a suicidal ten- 
dency. The solids and fluids may be reduced to a state in 
which they shall be obliged to take on a diseased — that is to 
say, a changed — action and condition, just as a man may be so 
far exhausted of his strength by excessive labor that he shall 
tire and flag in his movements. There is no lack of predis- 
position to disease of this kind where persons are reduced 
so low in the scale of physical degeneracy that it requires 
but little more of debilitating agency to place them on the 
sick list. By reason of the isolated state of the several de- 
partments of the body, their being independent of each other 
in their sources of power, we often have well-defined local 
(128) 



PHYSICAL DEGESEIiACY. 129 

or separate organic derangement or disease. One set of or- 
gans may be reduced to the necessity of faltering in action, 
while ethers are able to maintain their usual standard of 
healthy action. This is true also of parts of organs, for 
every portion of the system is furnished with an independent 
source of power in its nerve or ganglionic construction, which, 
if it does not elaborate power, serves as a repository of it for 
temporary uses. This mode of explaining diseases furnishes 
a clue to the mooted question among Old School physicians, 
whether disease can ever be general in its commencement. 
As disease is presumed to be atfAm^that attach persons, it is 
difficult to conceive how it can get "fool-hold ? ' by attacking 
every part of the body at once. Orthopathy easily solves the 
enigma. Any portion or the whole of the body may be re- 
duced to a disordered state at once, or gradually. 



OHAPTEE YI. 

HEEEDITAET DISEASES. 

It is matter of general notoriety that some families are 
specially subject to lung consumption, others to epileptic and 
apoplectic affections, others to gouty or rheumatic difficulties, 
or some particular species of disease which is more common to 
those families respectively than to others, and that this liabil- 
ity is traceable in such families from one generation to another, 
and sometimes in a long line of descent. In a town in Connec- 
ticut there was a family by the name of W , that was re- 
markable for transmitting insanity. And when a case of in- 
sanity was heard of in that region the inquiry was at once 

made, Has he or she any W blood in him or in 

her ? And the answer would be pretty sure to establish a 

connection with the W family. The transmission is 

on the well-known principle or law of propagation — like be- 
gets like. Parents beget children in their own likeness, 
transmit their defects and vices as well as their virtues to 
their posterity. The origin of special physical defects is ac- 
counted for thus : Some important organ has been subjected 
to the action of noxious agency until it is unable to main- 
tain its vital integrity and falls in its sensibility below the 
point of good feeling, which every individual craves. In a 
sound state of the body, stimulants or poisonous substances 
are always offensive, and are naturally detested and rejected. 
But when the sensibility has been impaired and depressed to 
a state of disquietude, relief is sought and, unfortunately, re- 
(130) 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 131 

alized most readily for the time by the treacherous agency 
which produced the evil, and in a manner well calculated to 
deceive. For while the vile deceiver is artfully and smoothly 
covering over an old wound which it had made, and which is 
just now manifesting uneasiness, with most consummate skill 
it inflicts a new and deeper one on the same parts, which will 
be sure at some future time to call for a repetition of the 
goading process. 

The exposition of a sick headache, the product mainly of a 
long use of narcotic substances, in which tea is the greatest 
sharer, will explain what is here meant. Green tea is the 
queen of teas, and is the dernier resort of tea drinkers in ex- 
treme cases. The nervous sensibility of the brain is con- 
stantly kept in the margin of pain ; but by the habitual use, 
in ordinary quantity, of common tea the head is preserved in 
a comfortable state for a considerable period. And when at 
length the headache comes in earnest to demand attention, a 
cup of strong green tea will set it aside for a season ; but 
while with its well-tempered ethereal blade it cuts its way 
into the repository of power, and rallies or gives free egress to 
the properly retained and accumulating energies, and thus 
raises the dejected sensibility above the point of pain, and 
even sets it on tip-toe, it does by that very act lay a broader 
and deeper foundation for a recurrence of the same maladj 
in an aggravated degree, which sooner or later will have a 
hearing. 

This illustration furnishes a key to a stupendous delusion, 
involving every kind and degree of human woe as pertaining 
to the flesh ; and much if not the greatest portion of that 
which relates to the spirit. The medical delusion, whose 
magnitude and dire results are beyond all human conception, 
is based upon the principle here disclosed. The doctors, as 
well as all other persons, judge according to the appearance, 
and fail to judge righteous judgment. Most people, under 
the action of appropriate stimulants " judiciously adminis- 



132 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



tered," "feel better." By "appropriate stimulants," etc., I 
mean the excitants that are adapted to meet the feelings of 
each individual, based upon a knowledge of his antecedents 
or habits of life — his likes and dislikes. 

" How is it possible," said a good woman, whose nerves 
had been unstrung by tea, coffee, and spiced dishes, " that 
tea and coffee can injure me, when they seem to do me so 
much good." Herein is to be found the why and the how 
these substances inflict injury. They possess no power but 
for evil in their action upon the living fiber. They can supply 
no want of the system ; and when they are apparently bene- 
ficial, it is by an exhilaration and proportional exhaustion of 
the animal spirits. In this rallying process, there is a two- 
fold injury inflicted — a wounding of deeply sensitive and im- 
portant parts, which causes the excitation, as the spur or 
whip in lacerating the skin of the horse arouses him to re- 
newed effort ; and also in the untimely and wasteful expendi- 
ture of power. When there is no power in reserve that can 
prudently be spared to meet the enemy in an encountering 
rally, the action of a stimulus does not " seem " to do good, 
but positive injury — intolerable injury. Its true character 
now stands revealed in its naked deformity ; "It biteth like a 
serpent, and stingeth like an adder." Such cases sometimes 
occur, though unfortunately not Qften, under the use of most 
of the potent poisonous substances, such as alcohol, opium, 
tobacco, tea, and coffee. The most distressing occurrence of 
the kind here alluded to that ever fell under my observation 
was in an opium eater. The upbraidings of an abused phy- 
sical conscience, or the horror of horrors of an agonized ner- 
vous sensibility, were beyond the, power of language to de- 
scribe. A portion of the time the patient was thrown into 
most excruciating distress by violent tetanic spasms. And in 
the intervals of spasms there was no abatement of suffering, 
for deep-anguished nervous feelings of different descriptions 
continued to call for vengeance on the violator of physiological 



PHYSICAL DEGEXERACY. 133 

law, as was manifest by doleful utterances and a woful 
countenance. The vile offender, or poisonous drug, which had 
been the procuring cause of this needless misery, and which 
had often served to assuage a rising remonstrance on the 
part of the vital economy against unnatural and abusive 
treatment, was on this occasion not only not tolerated as an 
assistant for mitigating distress, but its presence and very 
name were loathed and abominated. Taken into the stomach 
in any form it aggravated the sufferings intensely ; and it was 
not taken into favor again as u a good creature of God," " to 
be received with thanksgiving," until the renovating process 
was well matured and the empty coffers replenished with 
ralliable vital funds. These cases of extreme dejection from 
exhaustion of power by excessive stimulation, when the in- 
voluntary cause of intense suffering is put Jwrs de comlat for a 
season, are not common, but do, very fortunately, sometimes 
occur. If they were very frequent, the practice of stimula- 
tion would be very much abated. Inveterate tea and coffee 
drinkers are sometimes dropped into "the blues," when their 
favorite beverage will only make their blues much bluer. 
The same is true of intemperate drinkers of alcoholic liquors 
and the inordinate users of tobacco. But ordinarily when 
the physical conscience has been so far damaged that it can 
not only welcome but crave the presence and interposition of 
its violator in seasons of distress, it holds on and holds out in 
this course, " seeking yet again" the aid of " both cause and 
cure " in quantity proportioned to the magnitude of suffering. 
This very obvious truth has given rise to the somewhat 
homely but truthful adage, " The hair of the same dog cures 
the bite." And also to the more elegant and equally truthful 
Latin aphorism, " Similia similPous curantur" And here only 
is to be found the dernier argument for the use of medicine. 

If patients improve apparently under medical treatment, it 
is satisfactory ; it is taken for granted that the means are 
adapted to the case — the question of physiological adaptation 



134 THE TEEE OF LIFE. 

is not mooted. If the symptoms are not manifestly improved 
by one kind of treatment, " cut and try " till they do is the 
rule. 

If all people lived alike in regard to kind and quantity of 
damaging material which they use, and modes of life which 
they pursue, hereditary disease and predisposition to it, would 
be similar. But this is not the case. Different families have 
something peculiar in their way of living ; something in what 
they eat, and drink, or do, that is more prejudicial to one de- 
partment of the system than to the others, which drops and 
keeps this department in the realm of disquietude, crying, 
" Give, give !" And on the principle that "the hair of the 
same dog cures the bite," the predisposition or tendency to 
a special form of disease is kept up in that family, and 
handed down by lineal descent to coming generations. 



CHAPTEE TIL 

MODE OF KENOVATION OF IMPAIRED AND FEE- 
BLE VITAL MACHINEBY. 

In a sound constitution, where obedience to the laws of 
life is strictly maintained, the whole organism will be kept 
in good condition, with something of a margin for contingent 
outlays to meet extraordinary demands under all ordinary 
circumstances of life. But there are now but few constitu- 
tions that would be classed as sound, even by the present 
low standard of estimating soundness in this particular, and 
fewer still that are suitably cared for. Consequently, there 
is a great amount of enfeebled vital machinery that is liable 
to derangement by any unusual pressure from untoward cir- 
cumstances. To remedy this evil, as far as it can be rem- 
edied, the general economy, by means of the reserved corps, 
or source of power, that is common to most or all of the im- 
portant organs, in addition to their own independent sources 
of power, renovates enfeebled parts by a regular system of 
rotation — reinforcing A at one time, taking it up by a gradual 
recuperating process to the usual standard of soundness for 
that organ, and then B, and so on through the alphabet 
or list of enfeebled organs. As under ordinary modes of liv- 
ing, A will have declined in its stability to a greater or less 
extent at the close of a series of rotary renovating work, it 
will be fortified again in a new series, and thus this mode 
of restorative labor will be continued on through life, unless 
habits of living are changed. 

(135) 



136 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

The renovating work is performed under the jurisdiction 
of the individual organs and in consonance with their modes 
of operation in straitened circumstances, by the inter- 
change and joining of forces by the cardinal and recupera- 
tive functions, as has been explained on a former occasion. 
It makes no difference in this mode of winding up run-down 
machinery, whether an organ is so reduced in sustaining en- 
ergy as to be obliged to make an open declaration of its real 
condition or not. For there is no difference in the quality or 
nature of the pathological condition of an organ, whether it is 
above, down to or below the line of external manifestation — 
in the state of predisposition to disorder, or actually in a state 
of disorder. It is all feeble vitality and nothing else, differ- 
ing only in degree. Nature never suffers an organ or fiber 
"to deviate from its natural state to take on what is called dis- 
eased action, while she has power to prevent it consistently 
with the general welfare of the system. Sometimes an or- 
gan and sets of organs hover along just above the line of de- 
markation between predisposition to disordered action and 
open functional derangement for a length of time, before 
they are elevated to a higher position. At other times they 
fall below this line, gently or a little way, often, being called 
moderately sick. Again, very far below, near the point of 
death, and occasionally quite down to that point, and at all 
stages between these extreme points. In all cases, want of 
sustaining power is the occasion of the depression. 

Any man subject to diversified illness may verify for him- 
self the correctness of the rotary, renovating theory, by a 
careful observance of his bodily affections at different sea- 
sons. There will be times when he seems threatened with 
a cold, has a sense of fullness in the head, a disposition to 
sneeze, and experiences frequently and almost constantly a 
slight chilliness. These symptoms may be merged in a well 
developed cold of mild or severe type, or pass off without 
such development. After a few weeks or months he will be 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 137 

in no danger of Laving a cold, whether he is careless in ex- 
posure of himself or not. The catarrhal tissue of organs 
which is concerned in the deranged condition of the system 
called a cold is now in tone, and will not be under the ne- 
cessity of faltering again in its action until this tone is con- 
siderably lowered. So of other complaints, gout, rheuma- 
tism, fevers, biliary disturbances, and bleeding at the nose, 
etc. etc. 

Many persons are subject to a periodical epistaxis or nose- 
bleeding. This has been my lot since my earliest remem- 
brance — in early and mid-life, before my dietetic habits 
were changed, more frequently and inconveniently than lat- 
terly. For about two weeks I would be constantly subject to 
bleeding from the nose, from a few drops to quite a bleeding. 
A little tap on the nose at any time would start the blood. 
After a few days this liability to bleeding ceased. The ves- 
sels which had been under the necessity of parting with some 
of their priceless treasure, from a feeble, lax state, recovered 
their tonicity, and thenceforth would cling pertinaciously to 
their charge, and would not part with a drop of it, even upon 
a considerable thumping of the nasal protuberance. When 
any portion of the organic machinery has been recently and 
thoroughly wound up, it will keep good time until it has been 
compelled to part with a large share of its replenished stock 
of nervous energy. 

It is a well-established fact among physicians that two dif- 
ferent kinds of disease seldom exist in one individual at the 
same time. This fact has its explication in the general ro- 
tary system of renovating the different departments of the 
body, as they severally become impaired in their organic 
properties, and liable thereby to disordered action. And this 
wise provision or law by which the general economy of life is 
governed in the management of its internal affairs, is of it- 
self indubitable evidence of wisdom and design in the con- 
struction of our vital organisms, as but for this provision a 



138 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

number of important organs might fall into disordered ac- 
tion at the same time, which would proportionally embarrass 
vital operations and endanger life. 

Persons that are desirous of learning something respecting 
the movements of their internal vital machinery, will do well 
to study this chapter carefully, and then observe the order of 
the bodily affections to which they are accustomed ; as it will 
serve to inspire them with confidence in natural cures. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

ANALYSIS OF A FEW OF THE MOST PEOMINENT 
SYMPTOMS OF DISEASE. 

Ieeegulae Abtebiai Actio x. 

Stability is a characteristic of soundness and vigor in vital 
mechanism. In a strong man the pulse is steadfast, un- 
changeable from day to day, the year through. No ordi- 
nary disturbing power can change its beat. Febrile causes, 
such as would be sirfhcient to throw common constitutions 
into feverish excitement, have no effect upon it. When the 
pulse is found to beat faster than, or different from, its usual 
beat it is a sign of debility. Feeble persons have a more 
frequent pulse than strong ones ; women than men ; children 
than adults. It will not be claimed that a weak pulse is not 
evidence of debility ; but it is denied that the strong, trip- 
hammer pulse is proof of feebleness. As the same objection 
lies against violent tonic spasm, I will consider both objec- 
tions together in an analysis of the next symptom of disease, 

Spas^t. 

When I became satisfied that physicians were egregiously 
deluded on the subject of medicine, I set myself in earnest 
to ascertain, if possible, the ground of their delusion. The 
first step in the inquiry led me to conclude, or strongly con- 
jecture, that the error under which the faculty was laboring, 
consisted in a misapprehension oi the true nature of dise 

(139) 



140 TBS TREE OF LIFE. 

It could not be wrong, suicidal action, as it was then held to 
be by the profession generally. That doctrine seemed too 
irrational. Nor could disease consist in an " altered state of 
the vital properties ;" the sudden transition from health to 
disease, and back again as suddenly, which was no uncom- 
mon occurrence, militated strongly against that view of dis- 
ease. At length I came on to the ground which I now oc- 
cupy in relation to the subject, viz;, that the instruments of 
motion are the same in disease as in health ; that the motive 
power which works the machinery is not altered in its nature 
or quality ; and that the laws of life have undergone no change, 
and are not susceptible of change. That these laws are al- 
ways present to the last flickering of life, in full force, capable 
of controlling with perfect ease any amount of forces that 
may come under their government. That no organic prop- 
erty can by any possibility escape from under the government 
of the animal economy, become lawless, or reckless in its 
course and action; but must repair with absolute certainty 
and unerring precision to the point where it can do most for 
the sustentation of life and general welfare of the system — 
within its own precincts — and there expend itself. That 
when the different departments are all well supplied with 
power, good health is an inevitable result ; and that when 
any department of the system fails of getting an adequate 
supply of sustaining energy, impaired action in that depart- 
ment must follow as a necessary consequence. The conclu- 
sion, therefore, is that deficiency of vital force, or feeble vi- 
tality, is the proximate or immediate occasion of deranged ac- 
tion, or what is called disease. For more than forty years this 
theory of impaired or feeble health has constituted my plat- 
form in practice, For awhile, after adopting this theory, 
there were two forms of deranged action that I met with oc- 
casionally that seemed directly and strongly to oppose this 
theory, viz., strong tonic spasm and violent inflammatory 
arterial action. A patient would go into tetanic spasms that 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. Ul 

would require a number of stout men to manage ; and how 
could this be reconciled with the doctrine of deficiency of 
force ? But I was so well satisfied of the soundness of the 
general theory that I entertained no doubt respecting a final 
solution of the apparent difficulty that should be entirely 
compatible with the idea of lack of force. 

I reviewed my stock of physiological knowledge and found 
a serious defect in it. I had been taught that the motive or 
contractile power of the muscles was an inherent principle, a 
vis imita, resident in the muscles as the contractile property of 
gum elastic is resident in that substance. On the applica- 
tion of pathological tests, it was obvious that this was a great 
mistake. "A piece of wire pierced a boy just over the right 
eye ; he immediately lost all motion in the left arm and leg." 
Here was proof positive that the power of motion in the arm 
and leg was derived from the brain, transmitted through the 
medium of the nerves. Facts of a similar character were 
familiar to me, all tending to. establish the fact that tonicity 
is communicated to the muscles by a continuous process 
from sources independent of the muscles ; and that when 
this process of transmission is broken up or interrupted the 
muscles are immediately palsied — deprived of the power of 
action. 

This was an important advance toward an extrication of 
the " deficiency of force " theory, from the apparent incon- 
gruities that seemed to mar its soundness. It was evident 
that the whole mobile fibrous texture of the body had its 
ability to act supplied to it from extrinsic sources. To com- 
pass the end in view it was only necessary to suppose, cer- 
tainly a very rational supposition, with much to strengthen 
its plausibility and nothing to weaken it, that there was an- 
other set of nerves connected with this texture, clothed with 
power of a superior grade, also from an independent source, 
whose office was to control the subordinate working power, 
and subject it to the mandate of the will in muscles of vol- 



142 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

untary motion ; and in the muscles or fibers of involuntary ac- 
tion, to the subservience of the function of the organs of 
which they formed component parts. In a perfect state of 
humanity there will be perfect symmetry of organization, 
full endowment of organic agency, and complete harmony of 
action and equal diffusion of good feeling throughout the en- 
tire organism. In a tolerably sound state of the body, the 
controlling power is usually able to keep the subordinate 
forces in a regular systematic train of action, so that there is 
not often much obvious, well-marked impaired health that 
would be called disease. When there is a general deficiency 
of both sets of power, subordinate and governmental, there 
is general debility proportioned to the lack of power. Or if 
the deficiency is in the laboring department alone, the effect 
will be the same ; for if there is but just enough controlling 
power to maintain complete ascendency over the feeble work- * 
ing forces, it will be in effect the same as if there were a 
large preponderance of controlling agency. In either case it 
will be general debility — feeble health. The stomach and 
other parts will do a small amount of work^ without complain- 
ing or faltering ; but if pressed beyond the point of easy en- 
durance, they are obliged to manifest their destitution by ex- 
ternal signs or symptoms. 

If the working class of forces fails, there is paralysis to the 
extent of failure. If it is local and entire for a period, there 
is entire helplessness in the parts during that length of time. 
Sense of feeling may be continued in the paralyzed parts, or 
it may not. The nerves of sensibility are distinct from the 
motor nerves. If there is a general and final failure of 
organic working forces, while the general functions of the 
body in other respects are holding out, death will ensue under 
some form of paralysis. 

Two brothers and a sister, who all lived to advanced age, 
closed their earthly existence in the following ways : The 
first, A. B., in good health for an elderly man, while doing 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 143 

chores at his barn, perceived a numbness gaining upon his 
lower extremities, commencing at his feet. He was soon 
obliged to get on to his hands and knees, and in this posture 
he crawled into his house. The palsy continued gradually 
and steadily to advance upward to the close of life, leaving 
the use of reason and speech to the last. He lived about 
twenty-four hours from the time he first began to fail. The 
other brother, E. B., Esq., left his house in apparent good 
health, for an old man, and was soon after seen to lean over a 
fence, was found senseless, taken into the house, and lived 
about twenty-four hours from the time he was taken in. He 
revived a little two or three times during the twenty -four 
hours, for short periods, and once or twice with a little appa- 
rent knowledge of things, and was able to answer some simple 
questions. In this case the paralysis was general at once, 
commencing at the fountain-head of power. The sister, Mrs. 
N. J., declined gradually in general health for a number of 
months, suffering intensely with, extensive neuralgic affec- 
tion. While sitting in her chair her head dropped suddenly 
on to her bosom, with entire loss of reason and power of 
speech. After being laid into bed she was able, uncon- 
sciously, to move all the limbs for a while ; first losing 
the use of the right arm, hand, and fingers ; next the right leg, 
foot, and toes ; then the left arm, hand, and fingers ; and the 
toes on the left foot were the last of the instruments of volun- 
tary motion to lose the power of action. The heart and 
lungs continued to move for a few hours after the limbs were 
at rest ; then quietly and almost imperceptibly, a little within 
twelve hours from the time that the head fell, ceased to 
move. Here was sudden exhaustion of vital power at its 
source, while the sub -reservoirs were able to hold out, par- 
tially, for a few hours, yielding in regular succession from 
above downward ; the order of progress being reversed from 
what it was in the first brother's case. 

It is not usual for the subordinate force to fail before the 



144 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

superintending or controlling power does. Indeed, the former 
is much more tenacious of existence than the latter, and 
hence paralytic affections are much less frequent than are spas- 
modic diseases and impaired health with various "kinds of 
irregular action. When the superior controlling power fails 
to hold the muscular power under its sway, the latter comes 
immediately under the jurisdiction of a " lower law", that 
may be called the law of contractility, wholly or partially, as 
the controlling power is wholly or partially suspended. When 
the muscular power is replete in the muscles of voluntary 
motion, and the controlling power loses its hold of it, there 
will be violent spasmodic action. This will sometimes be of 
the long tonic kind, and at other times of the short clonic 
type, according to the circumstances of each case. When in 
the vascular system of organs the muscular or fibrous power 
predominates, there will be febrile action, more or less vio- 
lent. 

In some cases the arterial action is very strong, because 
the pulsative force is strong, and there is not controlling 
agency enough to calm it. It depends entirely upon the 
disparity between the effective or muscular forces and their 
controlling agency, whether spasmodic and febrile action is 
strong or feeble. Sometimes frightful cases of tetanic 
spasms occur, because the muscles are well stored with the 
impetum faciem of Boerhaave, or working force — and they 
should always be full of it— and for' the time being there is 
no superintendency higher than the law of contractility to 
govern it. The same is true in relation to the action of the 
heart and arteries ; when they have a good supply of work- 
ing power, and nothing but the lower-law principle to regu- 
late it, there will be inflammatory action of the synochal type, 
with a strong, bounding " trip-hammer " pulse. The type 
of diseases depends upon the correlative states of the work- 
ing power and its controlling agency in the essential organs — 
at least, this is true with regard to diseases of a synochal type. 



PHYSICAL DEGESEBACY. 145 

Low typhoid diseases have their foundation in a paucity of 
working forces, whatever may be the state of the superintend- 
ing agency. 

If the premises herein assumed are well taken, the con- 
clusion is undeniable that deficiency of force, the superior 
quality of force, is the proximate occasion of spasmodic and 
inflammatory action. 

Congestion of Blood. 

I can not better present my views respecting the immediate 
occasion of congestion of blood than by quoting and com- 
menting upon an explanation which Dr. Sewell gives of Figure 
Second on his Second Plate, which exhibits the morbid aspect 
of the internal surface of the stomach of the so-called tem- 
perate drinker of alcohol : 

" Here the work of destruction begins. That beautiful 
net-work of bloodvessels which was invisible in the healthy 
stomach, being excited by the stimulus of alcohol, becomes 
dilated and distended with blood, visible and distinct. This 
effect is produced upon the well-known law of the animal 
economy that an irritant applied to a sensitive texture of the 
body induces an increased flow of blood to that part. The 
mucus or inner coat of the stomach is a sensitive membrane, 
and is subject to this law. A practical illustration of this 
principle is shown by reference to the human eye. If a few 
drops of alcohol or any irritating substance be brought in con- 
tact with the delicate coats of the eye, the net- work of fine 
vessels, which was before invisible, becomes distended with 
blood and is easily seen. If this operation be repeated daily, 
as the temperate drinker takes his alcohol, the vessels be- 
come habitually increased in size and distended with blood. 
Besides this injected and dilated state of the vessels of the 
stomajch, the mucous coat of the organ becomes thickened and 
7 



146 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 



softened ; and these changes occur in temperate drinkers, as 
well as in confirmed drunkards." 

How important it is that pathological facts should be cor- 
rectly interpreted. Says Dr. Rush, " What mischief have we 
done under the belief of false facts and false theories. We 
have assisted in multiplying diseases. We have done more, 
we have increased their mortality." There can be no such 
things as " false facts." A false fact would be a strange 
anomaly ; but there is no end to false exposition of facts, 
which has been a source of infinite evil. Care should be 
taken to collect and thoroughly sift all the known facts per- 
taining to a given case, that a construction may be given to 
the main fact that may be reliable. It is an unquestionable 
fact that congestion of blood results from the use of irritants ; 
but it is not true that " this effect is produced upon the well- 
known law of the animal economy, that an irritant applied 
to a sensitive texture of the body induces an increased flow 
of blood to that part." But directly the reverse of this is 
true, viz., that the flow of blood to an irritated and injured 
part in which a congestion of blood takes place is diminished. 
This fact is well established by experiments. Thin mem- 
branous textures, in which the flow of blood could be dis- 
tinctly seen by magnifying glasses, have been subjected to 
the process of irritation until the vessels were charged with 
blood — congested. The current of blood is checked as soon 
as the vessels begin to dilate and become distended ; and the 
distension increases in proportion as the flow of blood dimin- 
ishes, until the circulation ceases and the blood remains stag- 
nant. Bloodvessels never send the blood forward faster than 
they do in their natural state — in full vigor of health. Though 
exceedingly minute in the " beautiful net-works " that con- 
stitute a large part of the soft solids of the body, they circu- 
late the 'blood with great rapidity, without making any show 
of it. And when they hang out the little red symbols of 



PHYSICAL BEGENERACT. 147 

functional derangement, accompanied with a painful throb- 
bing sensation indicative of embarrassment, it is conclusive 
evidence that they have been crippled and enfeebled in their 
propulsive power ; and that the quantity of blood which they 
circulate per minute is diminished in proportion to their dis- 
tension. These little delicate but all-important instruments 
of life and health take great pride in or have a strong in- 
stinctive tendency to keeping themselves in a slender, atten- 
uated form, and convey the life-giving fluid to all parts of the 
body without making a visible or sensible manifestation of it. 
They never blush for themselves ; and when they show the 
scarlet flag, it is a sure token that they have had abusive 
treatment. 

Appearance in sanguineous congestions has been the 
source of delusion in regard io their proximate occasion, 
as it has in respect to the immediate basis of other disorders. 
Erom the fiery aspect and the impulsive throbbing sensation 
exhibited in inflammations, the theory has been deduced that 
disease is " organic war" — an effort of Nature to expel an 
enemy from the system, or part affected. And the manner 
in which Dr. Sewell presents his eye illustration is calculated 
to sustain this theory ; "If a few drops of alcohol or any ir- 
ritating substance be brought in contact with the delicate 
coats of the eye, the net- work of fine vessels, which were be- 
fore invisible, becomes distended with blood and is easily 
seen. If this operation be repeated daily, as the temperate 
drinker takes his alcohol, the vessels become habitually in- 
creased in size and distended with blood." It might be ex- 
pected from this mode of illustration that the result would 
be uniform if eyes were generally or promiscuously treated 
as here described. But a large experiment will show a very 
different result. The vessels of some eyes would yield to a 
few applications of moderate irritants, and not only become 
distended with blood but be permanently injured, Others, 
on the other extreme, would hold out — if the initiatory pro- 



148 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



cess was carefully conducted, until the accommodating prin- 
ciple of the vital economy could arrange to have reinforcements 
supplied to the assaulted vessels as: they might be needed — 
for along time against powerful irritants The eye might 
be flooded daily with alcohol, and the " beautiful net- work of 
bloodvessels " would not blush. So it is with other plexiform 
systems of bloodvessels in all the important organs of the 
body ; stomach, brain, Jungs, liver, etc. In some persons 
they give out under slight provocation, while in others they 
will hold out against an enormous amount of abuse. Major H. 
could drink his two quarts of brandy a day for a long time, 
without much apparent injury from it ; and Governor .0. his 
gallon a day with similar results. Neither the small blood- 
vessels nor the large ones ever yield in any respect to the 
annoyance of irritants, so as to change their functional or 
structural aspect or character, until their tone is abated; and 
then they become dilated and distended in direct propor- 
tion to their debility. I affirm, therefore, without hesita- 
tion, that " deficiency of force " is the proximate occasion 
of the congestion of blood in all ordinary cases in which it 
occurs. 

Although Dr. Sewell failed rightly to interpret the inflam- 
mation of the stomach, yet his plates are faithful portraits of 
the ruinous effects of alcohol and other irritants upon this 
mainspring of our physical fabric; and they should be well 
studied by all who set much value upon good health. Dr. 
Sewell enumerates animal food and spices among the irritants 
that give the " beautiful net- work of bloodvessels of the 
stomach" a first start on the highway to ruin. 

The foregoing analysis of symptoms will serve as a speci- 
men of the manner in which all the symptoms that go to 
make up the sum total of disordered action and condition 
may be accounted for. The doctrine is, that wherever devia- 
tion from the natural state occurs, feeble vitality in some por- 
tion of the mechanism of the parts concerned in the derange- 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 149 

meiit is the immediate occasion of it, or is the simple reason 
Trhy the deviation takes place. If there is too little action, 
the subordinate organic forces, which perform all action, are 
deficient. If there is more action than is natural to the af- 
fected parts, the governmental influences are too feeble. 



CHAPTER IX. 

LAW OF CONTAGION AND GENEEAL CAUSATION. 

Theee is but one law for the action of morbific agents on 
the human system. And all substances are morbific that are 
capable of exciting an action without affording nutriment ; in 
other words, any substance that acts merely, or at all, as a stim- 
lus, a goad — that arouses to action by wounding a tender 
sensitive fibril, is morbific. Ginger is as really morbific or 
poisonous as arsenic is. It is not so rank a poison as arsenic 
is — can not be made to take life as soon ; but the tendency or 
law of its action is to disturb and disconcert life's healthy 
movements and shorten life. Arsenic may be diluted until 
it shall be as harmless as ginger for internal use. There is 
no such thing as poison, in the sense which is commonly con- 
veyed by the use of that word. The bite of the most venom- 
ous reptile is not. It may destroy life instantaneously, as a 
stroke of lightning does, by a sudden exhaustion of the 
present stock of sustaining energy. Or, it may maim impor- 
tant organs to such an extent that they can not wholly recover 
themselves from it ; but whatever is left of life after the 
poison has expended itself will continue to be governed by 
its own laws, and do what it can to extend itself and im- 
prove its state. The common idea of a poison is that in 
some mysterious way it betrays living matter, solid or fluid, 
into a participation of its copperhead propensities ; and thus 
getting "a foothold " in the system, and establishing a law 
of its own, " latf of disease," it will work its poisonous way 
.150) 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 151 

through the whole mass of solids and fluids, as the spoiled 
herring in a barrel of fish spoils all the fish, unless season- 
ably counteracted and subdued. The tendency of the action 
of noxious substances is to exhaust to a greater or less extent 
the unreplenishable stock of vital funds that should always 
be esteemed of more value than gold. In some rare in- 
stances there may be a compensating effect in their action, as 
when vaccination forestalls small-pox, whose effect on the 
system is more to be deprecated than that of the vaccine dis- 
ease ; the action of an emetic procures the disgorgement from 
the stomach of a substance that would be more mischievous 
in its effects than the emetic ; the toxicological administration 
of poisons, whose antidotal action on more virulent poisons 
compensates for their disturbing effects, etc. 

Contagious poisons range in the common category of pois- 
ons in respect to their direct effect upon life. This must al- 
ways depend upon the amount of force which the poison or nox- 
ious agent, whatever it may be, can exert on vital texture, and 
the susceptibility of the texture to its action, or the degree of 
inability of the texture to withstand the assault. Like 
causes, under similar circumstances, produce like effects. 
Inoculate ten men who are precisely alike in constitution, 
vital endowment, and all the circumstances that are to be con- 
cerned in the process, with small-pox virus of equal strength, 
and the phenomenal developments will be alike. Inoculate 
two men tinder opposite extremes of circumstantial adapta- 
tion for the action of the virus, and one of them will escape 
with entire impunity, while the other falls its victim. 

A blacksmith apparently in good health receives a slight 
scratch on the knee from the point of a nail by the sudden 
jerking of a horse's foot. A slight inflammation of the part 
ensues, with general febrile action, loss of appetite and 
strength, and in two weeks the man dies — there is no help 
for him. Vital organs are bankrupt in power, and as there 
is a little faltering at one point, though remote from the 



152 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

citadel of life, a neighboring post, before but just able to 
maintain its usual standing, now finds it more difficult to hold 
out and likewise flags ; and so on until the main organs of 
life are reached and are obliged to succumb- A stone mason 
goes down with a broken scaffold from a great height, amid 
a mass of stone and tools, and is horribly mangled and many 
of his bones broken He is laid aside on a mattress in a sense- 
less state, just breathing, with not the most distant expecta- 
tion that he could live more than a few moments. He lived 
many years, a sad cripple. These two cases represent the 
extremes of vital condition, and furnish a good criterion by 
which to judge of and estimate the law or tendency which 
governs vital movements in both the descending and ascend- 
ing scales of life under the action and influence of noxious 
and destructive agencies. In one case, vitality had been re- 
duced to so low an ebb that the essential organs of life had 
not power enough to make a successful effort to hold on their 
way against the embarrassment of a very slight disturbing 
cause. They held out as long as they could with what force 
they had. In the other case, there was vital energy enough 
in store to meet the crushing emergency. 

Dr. Rush said, "Life is a forced state ; a temporary vic- 
tory over causes that induce death." This is very true ; but 
not in the sense in which Dr. Rush viewed or held it. 
Life has no conflict with internal foes of providential appoint- 
ment ; but of opponents of a belligerent character of human 
invention and use, with whose doings it has concern to its 
sorrow, there are legions and all under human responsibility 
and control — proximately and ultimately. 

There is a diversity of opinion with regard to contagions 
and contagious diseases ; and to avoid misconception in the 
use of terms, some have employed the phrase communicable, 
instead of contagion and infection, and their derivatives con- 
tagious and infectious. When the subject is examined Or- 
thopathically the difficulties cease, and any of the terms may 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 153 

be used intelligently. To make the matter plain, I will treat 
of the small-pox on the Orthopathic basis, its nature, and mode 
of production. Let it be borne in mind that the human 
body is composed of many parts, each part having an inde- 
pendent source of power ; that each head of power is liable 
to great reduction in its free available stock by over-draft, 
so that the function of the organ may be easily deranged. 
Let it be further noticed that noxious substances make their 
election of the particular portions or departments of the 
body on which they will exert their main force. It is on 
this principle that the classification is made of medicinal sub- 
stances—falsely so called — in the Materia Medica, into 
emetics, sialagogues, diaphoretics, etc. 

The small-pox virus has its choice of texture on which it 
prefers to expend its force, which maybe called the small-pox 
department. When this department is constitutionally sound, 
and is amply fortified with defensive forces, the variolar efflu- 
vium may assault it with all its energy in its most concen- 
trated form, and it will make no impression on structure or 
function to change them from their natural state. 

If the small-pox department has been closed and sealed 
against the action of variolous matter by a previous operation 
by that matter, it is henceforth invulnerable by that foe of 
its peace ; and as there is no other part of the body for which 
the virus has any affinity, or on which it cares to lay violent 
hands, the individual has nothing to fear in future from 
small-pox contagion. If the small-pox department does not 
enjoy the benefit of a foreclosure act, and is short, of de- 
fensive forces in a measure to be vulnerable by its variolar 
adversary, and is vigorously assaulted by it to the top of its 
strength, the symbolical demonstration that will follow will 
mark the extent of the vulnerability. The variolous poison 
is a fixed quantity in any particular case, and immutable in 
quality. It strikes its blow and that is an end of it ; this 
specific cause of disturbance is gone, there is no occasion for 
7* 



154 TELE TREE OF LIFE. 

: ^ , 

looking further for it, or for taking measures to remove it. 
The effect is now all that needs attention. When the virus 
has expended its force, the vital economy takes its stand and 
makes preparation for advance movements in the work of rep- 
aration, purification, and vitalization. From this level, where- 
ever it may be, whether but a small distance clown on the de- 
scending scale of disordered action, denoted by few and mild 
symptoms ; or far down the scale, near the close of vital ex- 
istence, indicated by most forbidding and malignant phe- 
nomena, the line of march is taken up and pressed forward 
as fast as available poWer and circumstances will permit, 
without abatement, till the former usual standard of health 
for this tissue of organs is reached. Here is the law of 
causation for small-pox virus. It differs from the principle on 
which, and the manner by which, the generality of noxious 
agencies perpetrate their evil deeds only in securing as the 
result of its action a successor or crop of successors for an 
indefinite propagation of its species. And this indefinite 
prolongation and spread of small-pox is not effected by a 
kind of elongation or multiplication of the identical poison 
that acts in any give case ; nor by its inducing a fermenta- 
tive action in the fluids or solids, and thereby generating a 
new poison ; but the new virus is produced simply by a de- 
pression of the natural secretions to a point of vitiation that 
gives them a poisonous or irritating quality, by which they 
are adapted to act on the same tissue of organs in other per- 
sons. There are many other kinds of impaired health beside 
small-pox that, under favoring circumstances, produce de- 
praved secretions that are capable of inducing like derange- 
ments in other persons, when the susceptibility to their action 
exists in the departments corresponding with those that 
originate the noxious secretions. 

Measles, hooping cough, and chicken-pox are classed with 
small-pox as specific contagious diseases ; and these are more 
distinct and strongly marked in their general characteristics, 



PHYSICAL DEGEXEBACT. 155 

and more strictly conformed to rule in their observance of 
periods in the rise, progress, and declension of functional de- 
rangement after exposure to the action of the noxious effluvia 
than some other diseases that are evidently entitled to the 
claim of being contagious diseases, or that are sometimes 
produced by vitiated secretions. Even small-pox, the king of 
contagious disorders, must have been produced in the first 
instance without specific contagion, and doubtless has been 
many times since. And there are unquestionably many dam- 
aged states of the body, induced by more general depressing 
agencies, that do nevertheless sometimes generate specific 
poisons that are capable of causing similar disorders in other 
persons, when the localities on which, by express affinity, they 
are adapted and disposed to act are ready for their action. 
Passing over typhus fever, scarlet fever, yellow fever, and 
many kinds of typhoid affections, which are obviously in 
many instances the offspring of specific morbid secretions, 1 
will notice lung consumption, sore eyes, scald head, and 
some malignant forms of bilious disorders. 
. I have known two large families depopulated, one entirely, 
and the other nearly so, by morbific lung effluvia, transmitted 
successively from one member to another. They were all, of 
course, strongly predisposed to lung disorder by hereditary 
construction ; and it needed but little of a specific noxious in- 
fluence to impart to the pulmonary tissue of organs a fatal 
declension. Persons of strong lungs, with no proclivity to 
pulmonic consumption, may be familiar in their attendance 
upon consumptive friends ; but consumptively inclined per- 
sons should be cautious in this respect. 

Sore eyes come from proximity to sore eyes, only where a 
little of specifically adapted exciting cause is necessary to 
depress the functional action of the organ below the boun- 
dary line of its ordinary healthy condition into what is called 
a diseased state. The same is true of scald head, which is 
more frequently caused by the action of transmitted morbid 



156 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

secretion through the indiscriminate use of combs among 
children where a bad scald head exists. Biliary secretion 
may become so virulent as to seriously affect individuals that 
come within its influence. I was conversant with a case 
where, in the last sickness. of a man who had been quite lib- 
eral in the use of alcoholic liquors, the discharges from the 
liver resembled liquid tar. A number of the attendants of 
the sick man were affected more or less with bilious derange- 
ments. One of his sons who was about him more than any 
other person, and whose drinking habits were not very dis- 
similar from those of his father, was confined to his bed a 
number of days, a portion of the time considered dangerously 
ill, with a bilious disorder bordering hard upon yellow fever. 

Asiatic Cholera. 

Is cholera contagious or non-contagious ? Both. Tho 
cholera department of the system like that of' the small-pox, 
and all other special departments, is subject to depression and 
elevation in its defensive character. When it is in the zenith 
of its power, there is little danger that it will be disturbed in 
its functional action by either general or special hostile influ- 
ences. In the atmospheric world above and around us, beside 
the short irregular vicissitudes that are of constant occurrence, 
there are great periodical revolutions or cycles sweeping 
around, in probably measured periods, that are the occasion 
of incalculable disturbance to man's physical well being. 

There may not be, and likely is not in these revolving at- 
mospheric changes, any positive pestilential property, or any 
quality that is calculated to derange sound constitutions, but 
on the contrary to expand, solidify, and strengthen them, as 
heavy winds cause the sturdy oak to strike its roots deeper 
and firmer in the earth, and spread its branches wider ; while 
they wither and destroy the tender willow. But as human 
constitutions now are, these mighty atmospheric strides make 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 157 

sad havoc of human life and comfort. They bear more heavily 
at different times upon different departments of the body ; 
hence different disorders are more predominant or prevalent at 
different periods. At one time the exanthems or erup- 
tive diseases, such as small-pox, measles, etc., are rife. At 
another time, influenza may prevail over a large surface of 
the earth, sometimes extending over America and portions of 
Europe, as an epidemic, at the same time. For the same rea- 
son the type of diseases vary in different seasons, synochal or 
sthenic, for a definite period, and then its opposite, the typhoid 
or asthenic. At one time, the plague scourges the people in 
different localities successively ; at another time, the cholera, 
etc., etc. The make of the country, the prevailing course of 
the winds, and, most likely, many circumstances not within 
human comprehension, have much to do with the currents of 
the atmosphere charged with the condition that is to test the 
cholera departments of the people, whether they are cholera 
proof or not. The cases that are most and largely obnoxious 
to the exciting influence fall first, or are first to manifest the 
peculiar symptoms of cholera. Other cases that have come 
so strongly under the influence of the exciting cause as to in- 
sure their yielding to it sooner or later, to a greater or less ex- 
tent, will hold out through different intervals of time, from a 
few days to a number of weeks from the time of exposure to 
the disturbing agency. This is in accordance with the law of 
causation in respect to some other forms of impaired health. 

Men go from the East into the Western country and spend 
a few days in a fever and ague region, return home and turn 
shakers. Some soon after reaching home, or before they get 
home, but most of them do not learn till the next season, 
that the fever and ague department of their corporation has 
been tested and found wanting in vital funds. Not all who 
respire largely of marsh effluvia will feel disposed to shake, 
for many persons have no proclivity toShakerism. 

When cholera prevails in a place from any source, it may 



158 THE TREE OF LIFE 

spread by contagion ; not with the certainty and exactness of 
small-pox. Its past history is conclusive on this point. Proba- 
bly but a small proportion of the cases of cholera that occur 
in any place produce a secretion sufficiently pestilential to 
bring down persons that are nearest the cholera border, 
while a few persons may originate a contagion that shall be 
more potent for action than the most concentrated atmospheric 
influence. But the sphere of its action is limited. It can 
only take effect within a few feet of the body that originates ' 
it. 

Let me not be understood as supposing that what I have 
designated as special departments, comprise each a system of 
heart, arteries, viens, secretory vessels, lymphatics, excretory 
ducts, and nerves, ready to carry on general corporate func- 
tional operations on their own hook. My hypothesis in the 
premises hath this extent, no more : Special superadded sets 
of nervous filaments of encephalic origin are so connected 
with the different tissues of organs, or portions of tissues of 
organs, as to bear an important part in sustaining them in 
vigorous health ; and that when one set of these nerves be- 
comes so much enfeebled in its official capacity that it can 
render but little or no assistance to the tissue, or portion of a 
tissue or organ with which it is connected, that organic struc- 
ture, be it of greater or less extent, falters at once in its action, 
takes on impaired healthy action, and is known by the appel- 
lation of small-pox, intermittent fever, etc., as the case may 
be. The cholera department proper, or the arena within 
which the manifestations of the cholera are developed, com- 
prise the whole extent of the bowels beyond the boundary 
of the lacteal absorbents. It is in this track, and here only, 
that the great characteristic and distinctive phenomenon of 
cholera is manifested. It must be through the defalcation of 
special nervous influence that this peculiar derangement of 
the bowels has resulted ; for nothing like it is ever apparent 
in any other disorders to which the bowels are liable. There 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 159 

are various other disturbances of the system usually concom- 
itant with the cholera, and more or less dependent on it, that 
are met with under other circumstances. 

Colds. 

A common cold makes a good exponent of the Orthopathic 
principle and doctrine, in showing their rationale when cor- 
rectly understood in their relation to the laws of organic 
life, and the general law of causation in the production of 
impaired health, and especially in elucidating the law of ren- 
ovation of special departments, by a regular series of rotary 
recuperative processes. 

The lungs, with their appendages ; the lining of the nasal 
cavity, including mucous membrane, bloodvessels and nerves ; 
the pulmonic plexus of nerves, or the special nervous fila- 
ments that serve as satellites to this tissue of parts, constitute 
the catarrhal department that is properly the seat or arena 
on and through which what are called colds have their devel- 
opment. 

This special department is more conveniently situated and 
circumstanced for a full and accurate observance of the phe- 
nomena of impaired health in the department, than any other 
department of the body ; and colds are of so frequent occur- 
rence that there need be no difficulty in collecting and em- 
bodying all the important facts in relation to them in a con- 
venient form for proving or disproving a theory of their na- 
ture. x4md the establishment of a scientific basis for one form 
of disease, establishes a scientific basis for all forms of dis- 
ease ; for there is one principle, and but one, underlying them 
all. The remote causes of colds are numerous; tea, coffee, 
spices, and animal food are among the most effective, and an- 
imal food ranks first among the chief promoters of colds, ac- 
cording to the general testimony of consistent vegetarians, 
who have made a fair trial of use and abstinence. It is only 



1G0 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 



superfluous for me to say that the proximate or immediate 
occasion of colds is deficiency in vital force, for I have re- 
peatedly given it as my opinion that lack of sustaining en- 
ergy is the simple reason why any organ deviates in its action 
from the natural state, when all parts of the organ are taken 
into the account. Of the circumstantial occasions of colds, 
or the circumstances which frequently give them an intro- 
duction to, or bring them to the observance of, their foster 
parents, I will notice presently. 

It would be needless to give a diagnosis of colds, as most 
persons are familiar with them by plenary observation, if not 
by ample personal experience. Facts are now in point, and 
to these I ask special attention, as I shall blend theory with 
them. There are some men who never have colds ; their ca- 
tarrhal department is " so strong " in the bulwark and muni- 
tions of defense that the common causes of colds, such as give 
other people a bitter experience with them, pass them by " as 
the idle wind which they respect not." They owe -their immu- 
nity from colds to the native structural soundness and vigor of 
their catarrhal tissue of organs, and not to an anti-catarrhal 
diet. Other departments of their physical organisms may be 
obnoxious to the common causes of illness, and subject them 
to other forms of impaired health. Over on the other ex- 
treme, there are persons who are born with catarrhal organs 
so defective that they are always liable to be thrown by 
slight causes within the murky region of colds and coughs. 
But these persons may have soundness and vigor enough in 
other essential organs to give them " length of days." It is 
from the class of humanity between these extremes that I 
will select specimens, from which to glean facts for exegeti- 
cal purposes ; and I will take those that are a little above the 
mediocral line, who are pretty well endowed in their catarrhal 
organizations, and are generally free from colds and coughs. 
As a class, they are temperate in their habits — as the world 
counts temperance. They are, however, in the daily use of 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 161 

substances and the indulgence of practices that make a re- 
quisition on the catarrhal department for recuperative force 
a little in excess of the current income, so that there is a 
gradual running down of this portion of the vital machinery 
by a constant cumulation of small uncanceled injuries. In pro- 
cess of time this unbalanced account must be settled ; the 
machine must be wound up, and it is done in the unpleasant 
form of " a tremendous cold." There is now no discharge in 
this war. The debt must be paid to the last farthing ; and 
useless, and worse than useless, are all attempts to resist the 
claim. The more there is done to break up a cold of the 
final settlement kind, the more it manifests a determination 
not to be broken up. It becomes a deep " seated," heavy 
breast cold, and the patient and his friends may be apprehen- 
sive that it will throw him into consumption. But the design 
and tendency of the operation is to throw him the other way. 
The previous tendency has been to destruction ; that is, the 
effect of causes operating upon this important part of the 
body has been to lay a foundation for fatal consumption, and 
nature is now trying to obviate these effects, and place the 
system again in an elevated and safe position ; and the sub- 
ject had better accept the punishment due to the transgression 
of Nature's laws at her hands, and sin no more. 

These final adjustments are at long intervals — from four or 
five, to ten years. There are occasional short settlements, in 
which some of the most exposed exterior portions of the gen- 
eral catarrhal tissue of organs are concerned, between the 
long deferred conclusive settlements. In these little matters, 
every body gets credit for being expert in curing colds. But 
whoever will fairly try letting colds alone for a few years, will 
be satisfied that a natural cure is best. There is no difficulty in 
" breaking up " short periodical complaints of any kind, or 
rather in compelling a postponement of them from time to 
time, to be brought into final adjustment when inexorable 
demand will b§ made for full and prompt payment, with 



162 TSE TEEE OF LIFE. 

compound interest. Long colds can not be made short with- 
out stopping the breath, nor can. short ones be very much 
lengthened without in some measure changing their form or 
complicating them with other derangements. Nature is not 
easily turned aside, to the right hand or to the left. After 
the catarrhal machinery has been effectually wound up, the 
damages repaired, and a good stock of nervous energy se- 
cured, it will be a good while before the individual can have 
another cold. Expose himself as he may, he can not induce 
this department to take on impaired or disordered action. 
He may bring on some other form of derangement, but it will 
not be a cold. But when the catarrhal stock of energy is 
wasted, and the structure injured, he will have a cold 
whether he is exposed unguardedly to severity of weather or 
not. 

He will sometimes look around in vain for an excuse for 
his cold ; he can find none outside of himself. The time has 
come when it would be unsafe or imprudent to longer post- 
pone a renovating process ; and accordingly a transfer of a 
portion of the forces is ordered from the cardinal to the recu- 
perative function, to re-enforce the feeble reparative energies 
in their indispensable labor, in which they get some aid from 
the corp de reserve. When the catarrhal function is but feebly 
sustained, which may be known by the recurrence from time 
to time of slight premonitory symptoms of a cold, its action 
may be disturbed by small causes, yet these are regarded as 
the authors of the derangement ; whereas, they are only the 
occasional causes, bringing to light a state of things that ex- 
isted before, and that had been produced by a long course of 
transgression most patiently endured. Going from a cold 
room into a hot one will sometimes bring on a cold as readily 
as going from a warm room into a cold one. Changing gar- 
ments will often show the bankrupt state of the catarrhal 
funds ; whether it is putting on additional flannel or leaving 
it off. Any change that necessitates a little additional ex- 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 163 

penditure of power to maintain the normal state, when the 
extreme of forbearance has been reached, will introduce the 
canceling process. 

Physicians generally make the proximate cause of colds to 
consist in a collapsed or inactive state of the exhalent vessels 
on the surface of the body ; in consequence of which the per- 
spirable matter is thrown back upon the internal organs, and 
deranges their functions. And this inaction is supposed to 
exist without good and sufficient reason ; has been induced 
by some hap-hazard circumstance ; and therefore art should 
interpose to restore the action of the delinquent vessels and 
save the patient from consumption or some other dire ca- 
lamity. The collapsed state of the exhalents is sometimes 
represented, or w/s-represented, by a cast horse. By an un- 
fortunate move, or other untoward circumstance, the horse 
is back down in a small gully and can not extricate him- 
self ; but with a little assistance can regain his former good 
standing. The pathological horse never gets into such a 
predicament ; he can always get up, if he has strength to 
stand after he is up. The atony of the extreme vessels, 
which undoubtedly does exist in colds, is but a symptom, an 
effect, and, like all other symptoms, has its fundamental 
reason for existing. And when this reason no longer exists 
the symptom will disappear. Debility, feeble vitality, con- 
stitutes the atony or collapse of the extreme vessels; and 
recovery of their tonicity is identical with removal of their 
atony. 



OHAPTEE X. 

MEDICAL DELUSION. 

Theee are two principal sources of delusion under which 
medicine has rested that deserve careful consideration. One 
of the sources of delusion to which I refer is found in the 
excitability of the system, and may be called the Law of 
Stimulation. The other source of delusion springs from the 
general economy of life, and may be called the Law of Cure— 
a strong tendency to self-restoration from the effects of nox- 
ious causes and influences. 

1. The Law of Stimulation. 

When the tone of any part is much impaired, and its sen- 
sibility depressed to an uncomfortable point, temporary relief 
may always be obtained so long as there is free excitable or 
ralliable power within the attractive influence of that part 
that can be drawn forth by any motive sufficiently provoca- 
tive to that effect. A case in point will explain the law, and 
show how it can be effected. 

In the fall of 1822, Mr. Isaac Treat of Derby, Conn., young- 
erly man of good habits, sickened with typhus fever, a dis- 
ease then prevalent in that region. The case early assumed 
an alarming aspect, and, at my request, Dr. Dowe of New 
Haven was associated with me in its treatment. Among the 
most urgent symptoms were great general uneasiness, and 
short, laborious, painful breathing. After trying a number 
(164) 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 165 

of strong diffusible stimulants and other means to equalize 
excitement and relieve the chest, with very little sensible ben- 
efit, at the urgent request of our patient we made trial of a 
little brandy. To our great surprise it acted like a charm. 
It diminished the frequency and quickness of the pulse ; 
removed the heat and dryness of the skin, and the soreness 
of the chest ; relieved the difficulty of breathing and gen- 
eral uneasiness ; improved the secretions ; lighted up the 
countenance ; and, in short, made him appear and feel like a 
new man. For eight or ten days the brandy held its sway, 
and other means were laid aside. It was necessary, how- 
ever, to increase very considerably the quantity of brandy to 
obtain the same amount of relief; and in the course of three 
or four days, he was taking at the rate of two quarts of old 
and strong brandy in twenty-four hours. At length this po- 
tent excitant lost its influence over the vital machinery, 
palled upon the sensibility, so that its very name was loathed, 
and, of course, its use was discontinued. No other excitant 
could touch the case. Our patient fell into a death-like 
coma or stupor, entirely insensible to all that was passing 
around him ; the extremities were cold, pulse gone at the 
wrist, the bowels tympanitic or bloated, the power of degluti- 
tion suspended, and hope departed. In this state, with slight 
elevations and depressions in the general symptoms from day 
to day, he continued about three days, then began very gradu- 
ally to revive, and eventually got about and lived many years, 
with a lax, obese state of the soft solids, loss of the voice a 
great part of the time, and various other infirmities, the sad 
effect of the brandy, when there was not vitality enough to 
counteract its baneful influence. 

This case ended my trying to poison sick folks to health. I 
was before satisfied that in ordinary derangements, medicine 
did more harm than good ; but supposed that in extreme 
cases, something must be done to prop up and sustain the 
powers of life, or they would become exhausted, Here was 



166 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

an extreme ease, and the props Lad failed to sustain the vital 
forces, for they had fallen as low as they could fall and not 
entirely fail, with all the weight of the props upon them. 
For I knew that alcohol and all other excitants, were morbific 
agents, always inflicting injury by their action upon strong 
healthy persons, and more deeply upon feeble ones ; yet I 
hoped that in the case of Mr. Treat the bad effects of the 
brandy and other stimulants would be more than counter- 
balanced by the increase of action which they were the 
means of getting up. And if Mr. Treat had held on and 
come up with the props under him, I should have thought fa- 
vorably of their use. But it was far otherwise. Nature was 
obliged to fall back and rely upon her own resources for the 
restoration of her organic texture, under the great disadvan- 
tage of having it seriously crippled by the means that had 
been used, unwittingly, for her aid. When I saw that Na- 
ture was wading through the deep water quite beyond our 
reach, and was making for the opposite shore, I resolved to 
give her a chance for her life, in her own way, and in her 
progress upward, I only acted as her handmaid. I was now 
afloat on the broad sea of uncertainty, without chart, com- 
pass or pole-star to guide me in respect to the proper treat- 
ment of disease. I was yet befogged with the old notion of 
disease ; regarded it in the light of an enemy, and supposed 
that something should be done to break it up and destroy it ; 
and at the same time had lost all confidence in medicine 
used in accordance with any rules or knowledge then in the 
possession of the medical faculty. I looked over the whole 
field of pathological data, to discover, if possible, some clew 
that might conduct me to a sure and safe conclusion in the 
premises. I was then serving only as nurse for my patients, 
leaving a few small pretexts for medicine for their minds to 
rest upon ; and was careful to watch the progress of disease 
from its earliest inception on through its crisis down to its 
evanescence, to learn in what the antagonistic properties of 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. £87 



disease consisted. I was particularly careful to inquire of 
my patients about their condition just prior to the accession 
of disease, hoping that I might thereby discover why it was 
that any portion of the vital fraternity should take on wrong 
proclivities, and wage general warfare. I was struck with 
one prominent fact while pursuing this investigation — the 
order and regularity maintained in disease, from the com- 
mencement of it to its close — which was more marked under 
the " let alone " treatment than under the perturbating one 
of medicine. The " no medicine " practice also showed clearly 
that diseases were shorter, on the whole, when left to pursue 
their own course, than they were when means were used to 
break them up, or shorten them, and also that recoveries 
were more perfect. 

These considerations led me to suspect we were mistaken 
in our views of the nature of disease. That it was directly 
the opposite of what it was held to be. I was strengthened 
in this view of the subject by facts of another kind. I had 
recommended an abstemious mode of living to sundry individ- 
uals as a preventive to periodical affections with marked 
success. One man, an honest Christian man, was in the 
habit of taking brandy moderately as a preventive, and 
more freely as a cure for, when it occurred, of a neuralgic 
and somewhat spasmodic affection. On my advice, backed 
up by facts and assurances, he abandoned the use of the 
brandy, and at the same time parted with his neuralgic diffi- 
culty; thus showing that the brandy was both cause and 
cure. 

This description of facts tended to prove that Nature was 
forced into a complaining or discordant attitude by harsh 
treatment, and that she was always doing the best she could 
to maintain a natural, healthy position. And the case of Mr. 
Treat, ever fresh in my mind, came in to top the climax of 
facts and arguments that served, with a little remodeling of 
my physiology, to fix me in my present Orthopathic position. 



168 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

The Treat case, as it ended, furnished a very strong argument 
against stimulation. If when the brandy had lifted him up 
from his distressed condition he had moved upward to the 
recovery of his former state of health under a gradual dis- 
use of the brandy, the facts would then, so far as they could 
be reached, have testified in favor of stimulation. But when 
the brandy, after having inflicted indelible injury upon some 
of the most essential parts of the system because of their de- 
fenseless condition, leaves the field, or is expelled from it with 
the utter disgust of the sensibility which it had seemed to be- 
friend, and Nature retires within herself, recruits her forces, 
and then works her way up to the highest point of health 
that is attainable with the crippled state of her recuperative 
machinery, the state of the case is reversed. We have now 
another great fact that puts an entirely different construction 
upon the first fact. The sum of the testimony, correctly in- 
terpreted, now is that the brandy acts on the principle of the 
spur to a tired horse, goading and wounding feeble, unresist- 
ing, sensitive fibers, urging them on to increased effort while 
they have strength to sustain it, and when their strength 
fails, so that there is not power enough to react and cover the 
smart produced by the spur, this vile, treacherous foe stands 
revealed in all its naked deformity and ugliness, and is most 
disgustingly rejected. If Mr. Treat had been managed in the 
best possible hygienic manner he would have had a hard, 
distressing time of it, and would have dropped down to a 
low state of debility, but not to so low a point as he did drop, 
and would have recovered his former good state of health. 

We get facts from another quarter highly corroborative of 
the position here assumed. The bodies of many persons, 
after the heart and lungs cease to act, may be so aroused by 
galvanism as to make bystanders unaccustomed to such 
scenes, and ignorant of their true character, think that life is 
about to be restored. The fact thus far revealed is in favor 
of galvanism as an assistant life«*and-health restorer; but 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 169 

when we loot a little further we find another fact that turns 
the tables upon the first fact, and gives it quite another char- 
acter. 

The muscles of the human body are very tenacious of their 
motive power, the principle which enables them to act, or 
which is the foundation of their action, both regular and spas- 
modic. They often hold on to a considerable quantity of this 
force after all other forces are extinct ; and this is excitable 
by the action of the galvanic current. But the only function 
which galvanism can perform in relation to it is that of ex- 
citation and exhaustion. It can whip life out of a muscle, but 
it can whip none into it A few applications of the galvanic 
forces to the excitable muscles of an otherwise dead body will 
deprive them of every vestige of the life to which they cling 
with so much tenacity. 

By thus canvassing the whole class of facts that relate to 
stimulants, learning the effects of their action on sensitive 
parts, direct and consequent, we find that the law of stimula- 
tion is only that of exhaustion. Stimulants add nothing to the 
essential properties of living bodies, but are sure to deprive 
them of a portion of that which is indispensable to their pro- 
longed existence. Dr. Muzzy says that alcohol increases 
action, but diminishes the power of action. This is descrip- 
tive of all stimulants ; they can arouse or increase the action 
of the parts on which they expend their force, when there is 
ralliable power to be called forth for that purpose ; and in 
the same proportion they diminish the life power of those or- 
gans. But the ultimate end of stimulant action has but lit- 
tle influence in regulating the use of stimulants. In their 
proximate effect lies the secret of their great popularity, ex- 
tensive use, and awful havoc. People " feel better " under 
their operation, and they are not careful to inquire further 
about their effects. This pleasurable exhilaration of animal 
spirits forms the foundation and bulwark of the whole sys- 
tem of medicine. The system has no other basis ; it is wholly 
8 



170 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

destitute of scientific principle. Dr. Rush said in his day 
that the system of medicine was like an unroofed temple : 
open at the top, and cracked at the foundation. Physicians 
know, and it is a very easy knowledge, what medicine will 
ordinarily do. They know that tartarized antimony, and a 
number of other articles of the Materia Medica, will produce 
vomiting ; that a combination of opium, ipecac, and a neutral 
salt will induce sweating, etc. The doctors give medicine, 
their patients get well, and they get the credit of the cures. 
Quacks, the most arrant and ignorant of them, give medi- 
cine, and they are loud and persistent in their claims for ex- 
traordinary skill and success in practice ; and their claim is 
largely accredited, as is attested by princely Fifth Avenue 
palaces and millions of dollars in Government bonds. Prov- 
idential Nature is not careful to distinguish in her cures be- 
tween those attended by learned doctors and those prescribed 
for by the vilest quacks. 

Families take medicine, some of them in large quantities, 
are perpetually dosing, and they get well — cure themselves 
over and over again many times a year, and why should they 
not have confidence in domestic medicine ? They have just 
the Jcind, and just the amount of evidence in favor of the util- 
ity of their practice, that the parchment doctor has for his. 
And why should not families, the best of them, fill their cup- 
boards with brandied cakes and pies, keep a cask of ale in 
their cellars, and give large patronage to lager-beer establish- 
ments ? They get full warrant for such a course from the 
medical profession, the public conservatorship in, and the only 
responsible agency for, such matters. The doctors, by their 
theory and practice, justify general stimulation ; and what if 
some do use their license to excess? The abuse of a thing 
should not be urged as an argument against its use. What 
wonder is it that the Army was flooded with whisky and 
other forms of alcohol ? Stimulants seemed to do the poor 
weary soldiers so much good ; and this is as far as the med- 



PHYSICAL DEGEXERACl. 171 



ical faculty has yet penetrated into the realm of facts for evi- 
dence for or against their use. 

Oh, if the vail of obscurity that hangs over the whole sub- 
ject of stimulation could be drawn aside for a short period, 
until the world could a get fair view of the tremendous evils 
connected with it, it would stand aghast at the appalling 
spectacle ! In virtue of the universal and perpetual sapping 
of the mainsprings of life, caused by the uncompensated ex- 
haustion of the nervous energies by the action of stimulants, 
humanity is reduced to, and kept in, a condition in which its 
three mortal enemies, " the world, the flesh, and the devil," 
find it very easy to subject it to their sway. 

Stimulants might be used to some advantage or satisfaction 
as tests of vitality in some dubious cases of disease, if the 
operation did not involve an irretrievable loss, to a propor- 
tional extent, of the vitality of essential organs on which the 
experiment is made, just at the time when it is hazardous to 
have it diminished. 

In 1813, a typhoid disease of a peculiar type prevailed to 
some extent in the town of Huntington, adjoining the town 
in which I was then in practice, called the " New Millford 
fever." The disease originated in New Millford, a few towns 
north of Huntington, in 1811, and spread rapidly over a por- 
tion of that town, at first with fearful mortality. Lt the re- 
quest of my friend, Dr. Shelton of Huntington, I visited 
several of his patients with him. Most of his patients were 
hard sick, and some of them died. Dr. Shelton told me that 
his dependence was on calomel ; for he found that in every 
instance where he could get a mercurial impression, though a 
very slight one, he was sure of a recovery ; and where he 
failed, death followed. Fortunately, the doctor was very cau- 
tious in the use of calomel, and stopped it immediately on 
discovering that it had taken effect, for fear of a trouble- 
some sore mouth. At that time I agreed with my friend 
Shelton in attributing the cure, where recovery took place, to 



172 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

the calomel. But now I am satisfied that tlie calomel only 
served as a test to discriminate between cases where there 
was vitality enough to recover, and where there was not. 
The cases that did recover would have recovered better with- 
out the calomel than with it, and some of the persons that 
died, might perhaps have recovered if they had taken no 
calomel or other poisonous matter. 

A number of years since I attended a young lady in Ober- 
lin, sick with a typhoid affection, to whom I gave simple hy- 
gienic treatment while she was under my care. She ran 
down pretty low, with temporary suspension of the mental 
function ; was taken from under my charge and put under 
the care of another physician. Active medication soon dem- 
onstrated by a general improvement of symptoms that 
there was still a good stock of restorative energy at, or that 
should have been left at, the disposal of the vital economy 
for renovating purposes. After a few days, however, the 
symptoms declined, and on a Saturday the case was given 
over as hopeless, and medicine withheld, as there seemed to 
be no support for treatment — no favorable response was re- 
ceived from medicine. Through Sunday there was but little 
change. On Monday there was an encouraging revival of 
symptoms, and medicine was resumed. On Thursday the 
young lady died. 

2. — Natueal Cuees as a Sotjece oe Medical Delusion 

Deviation from the natural condition of function or struc- 
ture is Nature's " strange work ;" and when, from the force 
of circumstances, disorder ensues, it is recovered from with- 
out needless delay, as soon as recruited energies can perform 
the curative process. Under the old dispensation of medi- 
cine, which regards and treats disease as perversive and ruin- 
ous in its tendency, natural cures are a fruitful source of med- 
ical delusion. One very common form of this delusion is seen 
in what are called " doctors' hobbies." 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY, 173 

Physicians often laugh at or about each other for riding 
hobbies. One physician whom I used to meet occasionally 
in consultation was very fond of having a little soluble tartar 
— a very mild, neutral salt — in our prescriptions. His reason 
for it was, "I have known it do wonders." Another phy- 
sician was equally attached to iron, in some form, for all cases 
of debility ; and his reason for its use was that he had 
known persons "fat on iron." Under the new or Ortho- 
pathic dispensation, I found it very convenient to ride a small 
hobby in the form of a bread pill. It was a very small one, 
about the size of a common pin's head. For as I had a good 
deal of pill making and giving to do, and found it more 
convenient to carry small pills in my pocket than large 
ones — I had thrown away my saddle-bags — and inasmuch, 
too, as small pills proved just as efficacious as large ones, 
I adopted the plan of making them small. They were 
made of different colors, and the prettiest one that I 
employed was a very nice little red one, colored with coch- 
ineal. A record of all the remarkable cures that were ef- 
fected in connection with the use of these wonderful pills, 
would make a large volume ; I will cite three cases, two of 
acute character, the other a chronic one. 

Fikst Case oe Acute Disease. 

I was called to a distance a little after midnight to see 
Mr. C. B., whom I found afflicted with a violent inflamma- 
tory lumbago, or acute rheumatism of the back. I heard 
the poor man groan and cry out in his agony before I reached 
his house. On getting a history of the case, and giving it a 
thorough examination, I was satisfied that it was just in its 
crisis and would soon pass into rapid convalescence, and 
therefore felt safe in giving a favorable prognosis. I put out 
six little red pills — these were my favorites and dependence 
in "extreme cases" — with the following directions: "Give 



174 TKE TREE OF LIFE. 

a pill once in two hours, until there is decided abatement of 
the distressing symptoms; and as soon as the disease is 
well on the decline, stop the pills entirely, unless the dis- 
ease springs up afresh." I predicted that two or three of 
the pills would do the work for the man. 

The next time that I saw Mr. B., after the lapse of a 
few weeks or months, he said to me, " Doctor, what in the 
world were those little pills made of that you gave me ? I 
grew easier soon after taking the first pill ; and when the 
two hours were up, I told my wife I would take one more at 
any rate, notwithstanding your peremptory order to stop 
them when the disease was fairly subsiding ; for I thought it 
could not kill me it was so small, let it be ever so poisonous. 
After that I rested well till morning — sleeping most of the 
time. I soon recovered my strength, and never enjoyed bet- 
ter health in my life than I have done since that turn of sick- 
ness." 

The Second Case. 

The Rev. Mr. Irwin and his wife came into Derby, Conn., 
and opened a select or high school — a business which they 
had previously followed for some years in another place. 
They had no children, and both engaged in teaching. They 
had not been long in the place before Mrs. Irwin was afflicted 
with a very distressing sick headache ; an affliction to which 
she had been accustomed for some years. Mr. Irwin, in re- 
questing me to visit his wife, was frank to tell me that if 
there was another physician in the place or vicinage of the 
iEsculapian or Bush stamp he should not have called upon 
me, as he had learned that I had discarded medicine from my 
practice ; for he said his wife could not live through one of her 
turns without medicine. To soothe the poor man's feelings, I 
told him that I could give medicine in extreme cases, if cir- 
cumstances seemed to require it, and assured him that his 
wife should not be the worse for the lack of it. It was the 



PHYSICAL LEGEXERACY. 175 

most distressing case of headaclie that I had ever witnessed. 
Turns of violent spasmodic action of the stomach and ex- 
cruciating headache alternated each other. To quiet ap- 
prehension and afford them something for faith and hope to 
fasten upon, I soon made a display of pills, powders, and drops, 
which were to follow each other in the order here expressed, 
at intervals of half an hour, until there was some mitigation 
of the symptoms. But in spite of the pills, powders, and 
drops, the sufferings continued without abatement until near 
the morning's dawn, when they began to yield and very 
gracefully subsided into a calm, quiet, peaceful repose. 

A few days after this occurrence, Mr. Irwin invited me to 
his house for a social chat with Mrs. Irwin and himself on 
the subject of headache. After we were seated, Mr. Irwin 
expressed himself thus : "I have asked you in that we 
might ascertain your means of cure for the sick headache. 
My wife has had many of these spells, and been attended by 
a variety of physicians ; but never had so satisfactory a cure 
performed on her before. She has been relieved by other 
physicians sooner than you relieved her ; but she never re- 
covered so perfectly from one of the turns before as she has 
done this time ; and we are anxious to know what medicine 
you gave and how it was prepared." My response was, 
" All the credit that is due to me in the case is purely of a 
negative character ; simply that of standing between good 
Mother Nature and rough treatment. There was not the 
slightest particle of medicine in the pills, powders, or drops that 
I left for Mrs. Irwin — it was merely placebo treatment. And 
the only and very good reason why Mrs. Irwin had better re- 
covery from the last renovating spell than she had had before, 
is that Nature was permitted to do her own work, in her own 
way and time, and therefore did it up thoroughly, leaving 
the organs that were before laboring under embarrassment in 
a free, natural, and healthy condition. And now, if Mrs. Irwin 
will adapt her living in future to the laws of health, she may 



176 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

avoid hereafter these terrible pathological inflictions. Mr. 
and Mrs. Irwin both expressed much astonishment at the an- 
nouncement that she took no medicine. Mrs. Irwin requested 
me to give her particular instructions in regard to her living, 
which I did, mainly in writing ; and they were faithfully fol- 
lowed out, and she had no return of the headache. Mrs. 
Irwin had devoted a good deal of time to teaching, and my 
instructions enjoined an abridgement of this exercise and the 
substitution for it of out-door exercise, especially brisk walk- 
ing. A few months after the new course of life was entered 
upon, Mrs. Irwin came into my house and said she had just 
walked out from New Haven without fatigue, a distance 
of eight and a half miles ; and walked in the day before— a 
feat she could not have performed before she changed her 
mode of living. Such testimony as this case affords, is what 
is needed to break up the medical delusion ; and modern 
Hygienic institutions are furnishing it in great abundance. 

A Chronic Case of Disease. 

The chronic case of cure which I have promised to give, 
was in a town adjoining Derby. A maiden lady, at the urgent 
request of a brother with whom she was then residing, sent 
for me to see if I could do something to improve her health. 
She was an entire stranger to me, had but recently come into 
that part of -the country, and was frank to tell me at the 
onset that she had lost all confidence in medicine ; having 
suffered much of many physicians, and was nothing bettered, 
but was rather growing worse ; and that it was at the solicita- 
tion of her brother, who she said had strong confidence in 
my skill for curing lingering complaints, that she had sent foi 
me. 

When she had gone through with a narrative of her past 
sufferings, endured for a number of years, she said, "Now if 
you think you can help me, I will be glad to have you make 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 177 

a trial ; but if you think you can not, I hope you will be 
candid enough to tell me so ; for I do not want to take any 
more medicine without there is a fair prospect of its benefit - 
ing me." In response, I told her that I could prescribe a 
course for her that, if strictly followed out, would insure her 
health ; but I had no idea that she would endure a course 
that would be necessary to renovate her physical system, and 
place it on a stable foundation for healthy action ; and that 
any half-way compliance with my directions would be of no 
avail to her. Therefore, I told her I did not think it worth 
while for me to make a prescription for her. Arose, took 
my hat and bade her " good day." "Stop, stop ! dear sir," she 
cried. "If you can help me, I will carefully follow your di- 
rections." I called for paper, pen, and ink, wrote out full 
regiminal instructions, and promised to send her a box of 
pills, of which she might take one every evening, so long as 
she complied implicitly with the written instructions; but 
charged her to stop the pills at once, if in any wise she de- 
parted from those instructions. I cautioned her against being 
disheartened or discouraged, if she had to pass through some 
very sloughy and ugly spots before she got on firm table land ; 
And assured her that she would eventually reap, if she 
fainted not. I sent her a box of very choice little red pills. 
She was faithful in living up to instructions ; recovered her 
health ; got married ; removed to West Hartford, some forty- 
five or fifty miles from Derby ; and sent down from there a 
decrepit old lady to receive the benefit of my transforming 
and renovating pills. I fixed her out with a box of them, of 
the genuine stamp, accompanied with sanative directions. I 
got no return from this outfit — the old lady probably died be- 
fore the pills got much hold of her. 

The above are specpaens of cures under the auspices of 
bread-pill practice.* After this practice had been continued 

*Aqua fontana pura, or pure fountain water, variously colored and 
scented, with divers kinds of powders and other substances of an en- 

8* 



178 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

long enough to answer the purpose for which it had been de- 
signed, I called the good people of Derby together, and in a 
number of public lectures told them how anti-medically I had 
treated them, gave them my reasons for so doing, and asked 
and obtained leave to pursue my vocation among them there- 
after without the formality of bread pills. And it would 
have puzzled a Jesuit to discover a difference in results, be- 
tween bread-pill practice, and practice without bread pills. I 
will give one case of astonishing cure under this practice, 

W. 0. S., a lad of some half dozen summers, was most 
severely afflicted with an eruption, which, in nosological lan- 
guage, would be called herpes exedens, or corroding tetter. It 
continued through many long tedious months, disregarding 
alike cold weather and hot. It raged from the crown of the 
head to the soles of the feet, though mainly about the body, 
and often attended with such intolerable burning and itching 
that his mother was under the necessity of confining his 
hands in strait-jacket style, to prevent his tearing his 
flesh. The treatment throughout, with trifling exception, was 
simply hygienic — strict attention to diet, and ablution with 
soft tepid water with a little Castile soap dissolved in it, as it 
could be borne. The exception consisted mainly of a short 
trial of tar plasters to some of the most confluent portions of 
the eruption, in the early part of the disease — admitted under 
the strong importunity of friends. They aggravated the 
eruption and were soon discontinued. When the cure came, 
as it did at last, it was purely natural, rapid, and complete. 
In a very short time after there was a final marked improve- 
ment of symptoms, the eruption with all its disagreeable ac- 
companiment was thoroughly removed, and in its place a 
fresh, smooth skin ; making the happy lad appear and feel like 
a new boy. % 

This eruption was not an accidental affair, coming unbid- 

tirely inert character, served as filling in my "no medicine " practice; 
"but "bread pills" constituted its warp. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 179 

den, -without good and sufficient reason. The lad had 
reached a critical period in his life, when more force was 
needed for developing and maturing some important tissue 
than could be commanded for that purpose, without depriv- 
ing the cuticular vessels of a portion of their regular allow- 
ance. In consequence of this partial deprivation of sustain- 
ing vigor, these vessels faltered in their action, and made a 
sensible demonstration of their distressed condition- Occa- 
sionally they obtained for short periods a small additional ap- 
propriation of power, which was manifested by correspond- 
ing improvements in the symptoms. Finally, their former 
regular quota of power was restored to them, and they lost 
no time in putting their all-important expanse of fibrous 
structure in prime order. Shortly after this cure was finished, 
I took up a newspaper that gave an account of a protracted 
and obstinate case of eruption that had baffled the skill 
of a number of doctors, and was at last cured in three or 
four weeks by the internal use of two and a half bottles of 
somebody's drops. I took the paper to Mrs. Stone, read the 
article to her, and asked what would have been her convic- 
tions if W. O. had been taking some of the many remedies 
that had been sedulously recommended for his use, for a short 
time previous to his recovery ? " Why," said Mrs. Stone, 
11 1 don't suppose all creation could have convinced me that 
the medicine taken had not performed the cure !" 

This was an " extreme case;" a very extreme one. I was 
in the almost daily habit of witnessing milder cases of erup- 
tion of different grades, that pursued their destined or " self- 
limited" course and were " self-cured." Very likely, many a 
physician on reading Oliver's case will say to himself, and 
perhaps to others, " If 1 had had the management of that 
case, it would have been much shorter than it was. Acri- 
mony of the fluids, or some depravation of them, was the 
cause of the eruption ; and I would have removed the cause, 
and the effect would have ceased." In 1847, Professor — now 



180 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

President — Finney was confined to his bed on his back 
eight weeks, without being able to endure the raising of his 
head from his pillow, without experiencing a sense of faint- 
ness, under strictly Orthopathic treatment. A physician of 
some note in a neighboring town remarked to a friend of 
mine, that " If Prof. Finney was a patient of his, he would n't 
lie along from week to week, as he was then doing. It 
should be kill or cure." The " kill" might have been easily 
accomplished, and doubtless would have been effected under 
the superintendence of almost any " heroic " Old School prac- 
titioner ; but the " cure " is not among the powers delegated 
to mortal man. It is a curious fact that physicians have 
sharp eyes when they look over into the fields of their medi- 
cal brethren. They see exactly how all of their lingering 
cases could be cured up at once ; while chronic difficulties lie 
at their own doors from month to month, and year to year, 
without a successful application of healing virtues. 

Spontaneous or natural cures — and there are and can be 
none others — have to stand vouchers for all sorts and sizes of 
medical doctrines, whether they emanate from M. D.'s of the 
loftiest standing, or are the spawn of charlatanical cogitation. 
Whatever notion is entertained respecting the nature of dis- 
ease, whether it be that of wrong action, altered state of the 
vital properties, bad blood, or general depravation of the 
fluids, or any thing of a heteropathic nature, the final ap- 
peal for vouchers to certify the correctness of their doctrines 
is to cures which have been performed, as is alleged, by 
means which have been employed by them respectively. 
Quacks are the loudest, and probably the most sincere in 
maintaining the incontrovertible nature of their doctrine of 
disease, and fill almanacs and newspapers with accounts of 
remarkable cures, evidential of the correctness of their views 
and of the appropriate adaptation and the sovereign nature 
of their remedies. 

Even Prof. Liebig makes a similar resort. He argues his 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 181 

cause thus : " It is singular that we find medicinal agencies, 
all dependent on certain matters, which differ in composition ; 
and if, by the introduction of a substance, certain abnormal 
conditions are rendered normal, it will be impossible to re- 
sist the conviction, that this phenomenon depends on a 
change in the composition of the constituents of the diseased 
organism ; a change in which the elements of the remedy 
take a share similar to that which the vegetable elements of 
food have taken in the formation of fat, membranes, saliva, 
etc." If medicine could be founded upon a solid scientific basis, 
so that the principles and rules by which the practitioner should 
be governed could be clearly demonstrated, Liebig is the 
man to do it. He is full of chemical doctrine and philosophy, 
as well in their application to living organized beings, as to 
inorganic substances, and he says, "The combinations of the 
chemist relate to changes of matter forward and backward ; to 
the conversion of food into the various tissues and secretions, 
and to their metamorphosis into lifeless compounds ; and his 
investigations ought to tell us what has taken place, and what 
can take place in the body." Now if the chemist can do all 
that Prof. Liebig says he ought to do, surely he ought to tell 
us what has taken place in disease, and what means " the 
healing art " should employ for the removal of disease. The 
Professor thinks he has done this ; or imagines that he has 
demonstrated that " medicinal agencies " which are " de- 
pendent on certain matters which differ in composition," are 
adapted to do this work ; can supply material for the repairs 
of damaged machinery, on a principle analogous to the one 
by which " the vegetable elements of food are governed in 
the formation of fat," etc. And how does he establish this 
very general position ? By the same method exactly that all 
other heteropathic practitioners prove the soundness of their 
pathological views. A substance is introduced, and abnormal 
conditions become normal ; tlwrefore, the conviction is irresist- 
ible that " the introduction of a substance " has supplied 



182 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

what was necessary to restore " the diseased organism" to 
soundness. According to this logic, the two little bread pills 
which had a regular systematic, if not scientific " introduc- 
tion " into the interior of Mr. Cyrus Botsford's " diseased or- 
ganism," wrought " a change in the composition of the constit- 
uents of the" said "diseased organism, similar to that by 
which the vegetable elements of food " had built up and sus- 
tained his large and compact physical fabric. 

Prof. Liebig has given the whole weight of his large pop- 
ularity to make medical " confusion worse confounded." 
The Professor, however, has a different view of the subject. 
In the Introduction to his work on Animal Chemistry, he 
says, " My object has been, in the present work, to direct at- 
tention to the points of intersection of chemistry with physiology, 
and to point out those parts in which the sciences become as 
it were, mixed op together ! /" " It contains a collection of prob- 
lems, such as chemistry at present requires to be resolved, 
and a number of conclusions drawn according to the rules of 
that science. These questions and problems are to be re- 
solved, and we can not doubt that we shall have in that case, 
a new physiology, and a rational pathology ! ! /" 



OHAPTEE XL 

REMEDY FOE MAH'S PHYSICAL DEGEXEEACY. 

I peopose to treat of the remedy for man's physical degene- 
racy under two heads — Palliative and Curative. By Pallia- 
tive, I mean a proper care for and nurture of the sick and 
feeble. By Curative, a course of treatment that will eventu- 
ally place man's physical system above the reach of disturb- 
ing causes, where it will no longer be subject to pains or 
disorder. 

The ruggedness of the road to practical Orthopathy has 
been very much smoothed down by Homoeopathy, and more 
recently by the Allopathic branch of medicine. 

A few years since, Dr. Bigelow conceived the felicitous 
thought of a '•self-limited disease." The glaring fact that 
small-pox and some of the other exanthems would have pretty 
much their own way, led the doctor to conclude that there 
was something peculiar in the nature and tendency of these 
maladies that destined them to pursue fixed courses, and to 
observe times and seasons in their respective orbits. And 
that perturbating treatment, with a view of breaking up these 
diseases, or very materially changing their course, or shorten- 
ing their progress, would be futile, if not prejudicial. Many 
leading men in the profession have embraced the doctrine of 
self-limited diseases, and are putting it in practice to the great 
relief of good Mother Nature, and the comfort and safety of 
suffering humanity. The class of self- limited diseases is 
much enlarged from what it was when Dr. Bigelow first con- 

(1S3) 



184 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

ceived and fashioned it. The following is Dr. Bigelow's defi- 
nition of a self-limited disease : " By a self-limited disease I 
would be understood to express one whkh receives limits 
from its own nature, and not from foreign influences ; one 
which, after it has obtained a foothold in the system, can not, 
in the present state of our knowledge, be eradicated or 
abridged by art, but to which there is due a certain succession 
of processes to be completed in a certain time ; which time 
and processes may vary with the constitution and condition 
of the patient, and may tend to death or recovery, but are not 
known to be shortened or greatly changed by medical treat- 
ment.' ' This is a great advance upon old theories and prac- 
tice ; but the advancing column of medical reformers will not 
rest satisfied until it has included all diseases of every descrip- 
tion in the general designation of "self-limited." Self-limited, 
not by any thing peculiar in the morbid condition of the part 
or parts affected, but by the extent of lesion in the injured 
parts, and the amount of recuperative energy that can be 
controlled by the parts for their recovery ; just as the jobs of 
mechanics are " self-limited" by the quantity of work that is 
to be done in each job and the amount of force that can be 
appropriated to its accomplishment. The tendency of the 
" succession of processes" is always toward recovery, whether 
recovery is effected or not. 

No anxiety need be felt about the mystic antagonism that 
" has obtained foothold in the system," and established " laws 
of its own." It is time that this figment of the Dark Ages had 
become obsolete. When it is found that a positive entity or 
substantive agency or force, differing from vital force, "has 
obtained foothold in the system," and is executing " its own 
laws," let the undertaker be sent for, that he may commit 
" dust to dust." 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 185 



Palliative Treatment — General Directions. 

The first duty of a physician on visiting a patient is to as- 
certain, as far as he can, whether there are any causes of dis- 
turbance now in operation ; and if he finds any, remove 
them if practicable, and it can be done by art at a less ex- 
penditure of vital funds than it can be by a natural opera- 
tion, whether they are foreign bodies in the flesh — such as 
splinters, bullets, nails, pieces of glass — or poisonous sub- 
stances in the stomach. If a man has been recently exposed 
to small-pox effluvia, vaccinate him immediately, and forestall 
small-pox action, and thereby substitute a mild disease for a 
grave and afflictive one. But if the small-pox virus has 
struck its blow and finished its work, as it always has when 
the symptoms make their appearance, it is too late to inter- 
pose preventives ; all the damage is done that the virus can 
do, and the reparation of it is to be effected, if effected at all, 
by the internal economy. In most cases of impaired health 
the causes of derangement have expended themselves before 
the physician is called, and are, therefore, no lcnger objects 
of his regard ; and his next duty is to make all the external 
circumstances as favorable as possible for natural recupera- 
tion. If premonitory symptoms forebode a tedious, protracted, 
and dubious renovating effort while the patient is yet about, 
he should be careful to avoid all further injury to his system by 
accident or exposure, until the repairs in hand are well closed 
up, as fresh damage to some of the vital machinery, by compli- 
cating the renovating work, may be of fatal effect. When the 
restorative process is fairly commenced, and the organic forces 
are being withheld from the muscles of voluntary motion, so 
that sitting up and walking about is becoming irksome, the 
patient should be retired to the sick ward, a good-sized, 
pleasant, secluded room of easy ventilation, and committed to 
an ample, well-constructed hair mattress, with suitable cover- 



186 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 



ing for the season, and a fountain of pure soft water at hand. 
A good nurse completes the outfit. Now let Mother Nature 
go on with her work of bringing up the arrears of repairs 
without let or hinderanee. She will need water as a diluent 
for keeping the blood in a condition to pass through the 
large expanse of capillary vessels, and let her have as much 
of it as she calls for. The great, extensive, and complicated 
nutritive apparatus, that requires a large amount of force to 
convert raw material into living structure, is put at rest, that 
the forces saved thereby may be transferred to the recupera- 
tive machinery within their respective limits, so that 
there is no call for food, and none should be offered 
until a crisis is passed, or a point reached where some 
nutritive labor can be performed, and there is a natural 
call for nutriment. Don't stop to inquire what disease is 
about to be developed, whether pneumonia or measles. In 
Old School times — and I suppose those times are not quite 
" already past " — physicians were sometimes puzzled to dis- 
tinguish between these diseases, for often in their incipiency 
they are easily confounded, and when they were bleeding, 
blistering, and dosing to break up and keep back a pneu- 
monia, and at length discovered that it was a case of measles, 
they would immediately desist from their break-up efforts, 
and let the measles come out and develop themselves. Or- 
thopathy has no trouble or perplexity of this kind. All dis- 
eases are " self-limited/' and may be permitted to make a 
full display of themselves. Whether the symptoms run high 
or run low, ]et them run till they have had their run out. 
" The harder the battle, the sooner over ;" and the less it is 
interfered with, the less there will be of it, and the more 
likely it will be to end well. There can be no wrong action, 
for whatever action there is, is controlled by an immutable 
righteous law which insures its tendency toward recovery, 
whether it reaches that point or not. Whether there is ex- 
treme debility, high inflammatory action, or strong tetanic 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 187 

spasm, it is each and all feeble vitality, absolute or relative, 
as I have explained in former articles. Deficiency of force 
in different departments is the immediate occasion of de- 
ranged action. This deficiency can only be supplied by the 
recruiting faculties at their respective nerve centers which are 
independent of the puny arm of flesh. Medicine has no salu- 
tary control over these sources of life force. 

And food has no more to do with the production of vitality, 
than the timber, planks, bolts, and canvas for the ship have in 
supplying ship-carpenters and sailors. In the mass of dis- 
eases — such as simple continued or remittent fever, scarlet 
fever, measles, mild bilious fevers — and most of the disorders 
that are termed febrile, that require a few days to do up 
their recuperative work in, the proper course of treatment to 
be pursued, is exceedingly plain and simple. So long as 
there is no call for nutriment, a cup of cool water is all that 
is needed for the inner man. A good nurse, however, who 
knows how to humor the whims of the patient, will often find 
enough to do in caring for the outer man. Indulgences 
should be granted freely, when they are not positively or 
seriously injurious. The great object to be steadily aimed at 
in all cases of sickness, is to favor the renovating process 
which is in constant progression within. Rest, quiet, is the 
great remedy. Let there be no unnecessary expenditure of 
vital funds, either through mental exercise, or any undue ex- 
ercise of the bodily functions. When there is a disposition 
to sleep, let it be indulged. And as there is no medicine to be 
given by the hour, sleep may be protracted to any length, 
unless it is laborious, then a slight jog, or a little change of 
position, or a swallow of water, will start it in its regular 
train again. 

" That is all very well," said a good medical friend, " in 
mild diseases ; but when disease becomes violent, if there is 
nothing done to check it, it will overcome the powers of life." 
This friend admitted fully that disease was not a some thing , 



188 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

emphasizing the word thing. It must be a some-thing or a 
wo-thing ; and Orth.opath.ists are content to let nothing take care 
of itself. But just here is the tug of war ; the pivot on which 
the question of medicine or no medicine hinges. Admitting 
that mild diseases do not of themselves afford a basis for a 
system of medication, the question arises, Does the extension 
or aggravation of symptoms change the nature of disease ? 
I have argued the main points of this question before ; but 
the intrinsic importance of the subject, and the difficulties 
that environ it, will justify a further consideration of it in this 
connection. I will notice the two extremes of disease — high 
inflammatory action, and extreme debility. 

Theoey of Inflammation, 

Eelative debility, or feeble vitality, is the occasion of in- 
flammation, high or low. Controlling power is deficient, 
while the muscular force is in excess of it, and now exercises 
its right of pre-dominant action. There is no danger to be 
apprehended from the pulsative throbbing of the arteries, 
while there is controlling power enough to keep it in check, 
or within safe limits; and this it will most assuredly do, 
while its ability holds out ; and the only or best chance that 
can be given it to hold out and regain its ascendency over the 
muscular force, is to leave it, as all other powers are or should 
be left, entirely to its self-acting and self-recruiting faculty. 
When the pulsative action threatens to overleap the bounds 
of safety, the controlling power will make a fresh effort to 
restrain it, and then recline its action in order to replenish 
its stock of energy ; and in this way, and in this way only, 
can it recover and retain its superintendence of the muscular 
force. The muscular force can only be reached and curbed 
through its controlling agency. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 189 



Example for Elucidation. 

Inflammation of the eyes, with, general febrile affection of 
the whole system. Subject : Mrs. Lockwood Kinney, a young 
woman of good constitution, and usually enjoying good health. 
The development of symptoms was regular. The febrile 
character of the disease, remittent, and the general febrile 
diathesis strong, with an early and intensely painful inflamma- 
tory affection of the eyes, At the height of the disease, the 
inflammatory symptoms were exceedingly violent, and espe- 
cially so during the exacerbations, which were repeated twice 
in twenty-four hours. The whole anterior portion of the eyes 
was covered with a dense coat of red vessels,, obstructing the 
vision, and presenting the appearance of two intense glowing 
fireballs. At this stage of the disease, Dr. Darken, a particu- 
lar medical friend, saw Mrs, Kinney, with me. " You will 
lose your patient," exclaimed my friend, as we retired from 
the sick room, " unless you do something immmediately for 
the reduction of the inflammation. The eyes are gone already 
beyond all chance of recovery." I had no fear with regard 
to the life of the woman ; and my confidence in the strong 
Orthopathic or upright upward tendency of natural law, based 
as it was in this case upon a good constitution, gave me 
strong hope that the eyes would be saved. The external 
phenomenal demonstration did not alarm me, only as it 
was symbolical of a seriously defective state of the all impor- 
tant interior mechanism of the eyes. To remedy this defective 
condition of the priceless organs, was at the time the great 
paramount object of the divinely constituted economy of human 
life. Every movement of every tissue, organ, and fiber of the 
body, had especial reference to the attainment of this end. 
All the free vital force that was available to this department 
of the body or that was within its circling range of attraction, 
contributed directly to the recuperative effort then in pro- 



190 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

gress ; and all other departments that were not directly 
amenable to this department by way of actual contribution of 
power, were impelled, or rather self-inclined, to assume atti- 
tudes favorable to a propitious issue of the restorative process. 
The symptoms were precisely what they should be ; not one 
too many, nor one too few. Wherever danger threatened the 
hardest, immediately or mediately, forces were on the alert to 
repair to that point for its succor. 

Objection hy Dr. A. 

"In inflammations, the lymph corpuscles of the blood are 
in excess, and in the eye threaten the destruction of vision, 
by causing an opacity of the lens. And it is demonstrable by 
microscopic observation, that calomel is a dissipater of the 
morbid viscidity." 

It is true that there is a tendency to the thickening of the 
blood in inflammation, or to an undue preponderance of the 
lymph or glutinous portion of it over the serum ; and this is 
an evil, a sore evil, one that should be remedied by art if it 
can be done without doing as much or more harm than good. 
It is also true, beyond all question, that calomel, as a gen- 
eral thing, does act wonderfully and powerfully as a present 
diluent and rectifier of both fluids and solids in inflam- 
matory affections. But how does it do this ? Not by passing 
quietly and harmlessly into the circulation, and thence 
through all parts of the body, and by a direct hygienic process 
dilute the blood and mend the solids. It grasps firmly and 
most cruelly a delicate vital tissue, and thus compels good 
Dame Nature to desist from her curative work, and start 
afresh the wheels of life generally for self-defense. A two- 
fold evil results from this operation. Eirst, the infliction of 
positive injury upon vital machinery. This is extensive ; in- 
deed, there is not a fiber of the body that can escape its 
searching and arousing action. There is no other article of 



PMYSICAL DEGEXERACY. 191 

the Materia Medica so tractable as calomel that can be made 
to act the part of a treacherous spur on all parts of the sys- 
tem as it can. On this account, physicians who are in the 
habit of using calomel hold it as a dernier resort for cases in 
which they are baffled by other means. 

The second great evil that comes from the action of calomel, 
or any other powerful perturbing instrumentality, is a diver- 
sion and prodigal waste of power under the pressure of ex- 
citation, or law of stimulation, at a critical juncture, just 
when all the resources of life that can be safely spared from 
other operations, should be concentrated at one point to save 
a valuable organ from irretrievable ruin. Some present good 
is secured by having the forces remanded to their old posts, 
and the ordinary functions restored or reinvigorated a little 
sooner than they otherwise would be ; but this is only as 
dust in the balance against the evils occasioned by an inju- 
dicious interference with natural law. 

If Gen. Grant- sees that a military post of great value to 
him will be wrested from him, unless the feeble guard is im- 
mediately re-enforced, and to this end calls off some forces 
from contiguous stations as a temporary expedient, would it 
be wise in President Johnson to countermand Gen. Grant's 
orders, because he perceives that some inconvenience will 
arise from the absence of the forces that are called off? 
Gen. , Grant looks over the whole field, and knows exactly 
where his forces can operate to the best advantage ; and while 
he has not forces enough under his control to meet all de- 
mands for them, he will be careful to dispose of what he has 
to the best advantage. 

In the case of Mrs. Kinney, in due time the recuperative 
work on the interior portions of the eyes was finished, and 
the natural or usual allotments of power were again made to 
the vessels on the exterior portions of the eyes and all other 
parts of the body. The eyes were completely restored to 
their former soundness and transparency, and have remained 



192 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



in that state to the present time, now more than thirty years. 
This case affords a perfect epitome of disease in general, and 
fairly illustrates its nature and tendency. It was not " or- 
ganic war," for although the vessels on the exterior 
of the eyes looked angry, assumed a bellicose aspect, 
yet they indulged no belligerent feelings. The red flag 
which they displayed was a token of distress, not of wrath. 
Nor was that portion of the ophthalmia which professional 
nosological arrangement, and the popular sentiment, regard 
as constituting the disease— " the totality of symptoms," the 
visible or sensible manifestation of impaired condition — " a 
process of reparation and purification." The organs in which 
a change from the natural state was apparent, were only pas- 
sive partners in the great work of renovation. The active 
partners were out of sight. In consequence of a transfer of 
power from one set of machinery to another, one set was en- 
abled to do more than before it was able to do ; and the other 
set was proportionally disabled from maintaining its natural 
position. The red vessels were in no danger of giving out, 
and making an unfortunate termination of the inflammation, 
while the general economy had power enough in store to 
carry the whole curative process through safely ; for when 
those vessels were in danger of being pressed beyond the 
point of restoration, so as to endanger their eventual continuity 
or integrity, they were reinvigorated sufficiently to prevent so 
deplorable a result. And in order to insure the final safety 
of all parts, and at the same time secure a vigorous prosecu- 
tion of the restorative work, there were semi-quotidian remis- 
sions of the most urgent symptoms during the heaviest part 
of the process. This case was probably on the extreme 
border of curability under any treatment. Had the difficulties 
to be surmounted been much greater than they were, or the 
available forces for their removal much less than they were, 
most likely partial or total blindness would have been the re- 
sult. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 193 

It is in place to repeat here the sentiment which has been 
before advanced in this work — for it can not be to deeply im- 
pressed on the mind — that in all diseases, the symptoms or 
evidences of impaired states, are always proportioned with 
minute exactness to the nature and extent of the difficulties 
to be remedied, when they are remediable, under existing 
circumstances. In other words, Nature knows what needs to 
be done, what means she has to do with, and makes no 
mistake in the adaptation of means to ends. To express the 
same thing in another form, I would say that disease, or that 
condition of the system which has obtained that name, includ- 
ing all the vital operations therewith connected, or that are 
essential to the process of renovation, is an extra effort to 
bring up the arrears of repairs. A general renovating opera- 
tion is in unremitting progress from the commencement of life 
to its close. In a perfect state of the human system, with a 
faithful observance of the laws of life, the repairs would keep 
pace with the impairs. As it is, the repairs are usually kept 
above the point of complaining or manifestation of symptoms ; 
though no doubt a great deal of repairing is done just above 
the point of actual complaint — a clear demonstration of symp- 
toms — in a state in which persons tire easily. And when 
from the operation of any causes, whether they are the con- 
stant routine of daily violations of the laws of life, which all 
persons are more or less guilty of; or from the action of 
causes now beyond our control, and which, in the present de- 
generate state of our common humanity take a deep hold of 
us — such as poisonous effluvia of various kinds, typhoid con- 
tagions, great and sudden changes of weather, and the like — 
open well-pronounced functional derangement becomes un- 
avoidable, Nature arrests it as soon as she can, and reinstates 
the functional condition of the parts, at least above the point 
of complaining, or what would be called actual disease. Hence 
there are, comparatively, few diseases that proceed to an ex- 
tremity. And hence, also, doctors prescribe frequently for 



194: THE TREE OF LIFE. 

inflammation of the eyes, as for every thing else, and are won- 
derfully successful. I once thought that I had compounded 
a wash for sore eyes that was exceedingly efficacious for their 
cure, until I made trial of some pure spring water, put up 
in vials and labeled with name and directions as for the cele- 
brated eye wash which took the gloss off from the "apothecary" 
wash. In my early practice, when I believed, as I had been 
taught, that " the bull should be taken by the horns," two cases 
of ophthalmia, under my supervision, terminated unfortunately. 
In 1814, Mr. Thomas Peet, a youngerly, robust man, had a 
violent " attack" of inflammation of the eyes. Bleeding, 
general and topical, blistering, calomel, antimony, and the 
whole round of anti-phlogistic medication were put to the test 
for cure, but failed. The inflammation was subdued, but the 
sight was lost — total blindness ensued. Without any treat- 
ment, the poor man would have come off better. A few years 
after this, Mr. John Lewis had a severe turn of inflammation 
of the eyes, and was treated pretty sharply by myself, and Dr. 
N. Smith of New Haven, associated with me in counsel in the 
case. Mr. Lewis escaped with partial retention of his sight. 
In 1837, I was introduced to the Rev. 0. Eastman of 
Oberlin, nearly stark blind. In answer to my inquiry as to 
the manner of his blindness, he told me that he had three 
severe turns of inflammation of the eyes, at intervals of a few 
months, which were cured by large bleedings, and a liberal 
use of calomel, but soon after the inflammation was cured the 
third time, blindness came on him. Prom the fact that Na- 
ture held out under such fearful odds, and maintained visual 
soundness till she had made three distinct efforts to recuperate 
the eyes, it is my belief that if Mr. Eastman had been left 
wholly in the hands of Nature and a good nurse, in the first 
instance, he would have had a severe spell with his eyes, but 
would have saved his sight. 

Formerly, physicians were much in the practice of bleeding 
and giving calomel in obstinate cases of disease, from a knowl- 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 195 

i Ige of their striking effect. Of course, it was their belief 
that the apparent good effect of these means, was the result 
of their action upon something that was a foe to life. These, 
and other potent remedies, or means that were supposed to be 
remedial in their effects upon the system, act on the principle 
of antagonism to life, and can act on no other principle. And 
the greater their power for ill, the more certain they are to 
rally the vital forces and get up a make believe that they are 
very helpful to Nature. A good symptomatologist, armed with 
a few of the leading or most powerful instruments of " death 
and destruction," could make a grand display of knowledge 
and skill for managing diseases. And he would not need a 
large numerical patronage to give him sufficient employ and 
a comfortable support, for his cures would require to be often 
repeated. If I were a young man, and were disposed to go 
into the practice of medicine with a sole view to medical re- 
nown and "material aid," I would be content to take into 
the field with me only seven articles : the lancet, calomel, 
tartarized antimony, opium, brandy, strychnine, and arse^c. 

Extreme Deeility. 

It is unnecessary to go into a labored argument, theoreti- 
cally or statistically, to show that feeble vitality is the proxi- 
mate occasion of debility ; for they are only convertible terms, 
— debility is feeble vitality, and feeble vitality is debility. The 
only point at issue now between Heteropathy and Orthopathy 
is — and it is a very grave one ; one on which hang moment- 
ous interests — can any thing be done to "help Nature" in re- 
covering her strength, and in sustaining vital action, through 
the instrumentality of means and measures outside of what 
may be called good nursing? To this question, Hetero- 
pathy, with one accord, says Yes. And when we analyze the 
mass of Heteropathic opinions in this matter we find them to 
be like Joseph's coat — a motley composite. The most "heroic" 



196 THE TREE OF LIFE, 

of the Old School men believe in doing a great deal to "help 
Nature," They have a large class of tonics and supporters, 
transient and permanent. The medium set of perturb ators are 
more moderate in their "jogging" ideas and efforts ; yet they 
would do a good deal to "help Nature." 

The most moderate of the Old School medical men are 
very modest in their pretensions of knowledge and skill for 
" helping Nature," either by way of strengthening or curing. 
Still they would do something ; stand by and put under little 
props when Nature was weary and exhausted. And this 
practice is as fatal to thorough Medical Reform as moderate 
drinking is to Temperance Eeform. But Orthopathy gives an 
emphatic No to the whole scheme of artificial interference 
with the peculiar and appropriate sphere of the general econ- 
omy of human life, including its resources and duties. 

As in inflammatory affections, there are degrees of the in- 
flammatory action from the mild to very violent and fatal ; 
so in debility, there are grades from a little loss of tone to 
the loss of life. But in most cases of general debility, without 
fever, the range of feebleness of vitality is from an uncom- 
fortable sense of weariness to a low but naturally recoverable 
state of typhoid declension. Every grade of atony is " lim- 
ited " with great exactness — so far as the internal administra- 
tion of affairs is concerned — by the quantity of nervous en- 
ergy that can be supplied by the independent nerve cen- 
ters. Therefore, if the mind is in a suitable, confiding state, 
and proper attention is given to the outer man, there is noth- 
ing left for art to do to expedite a cure. If it were other- 
wise ; if it were possible by any human device to augment 
the current income of vital force, or in any way to accelerate 
the restorative process, a discovery of a way and means to 
the accomplishment of so desirable an end would long since 
have been made, and the " art of healing " placed upon a 
solid scientific basis, where its principles could be easily 
•raced, and its rules put undeviatingly and successfully in 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 197 



practice. Many, very many of the best minds that the world 
ever produced, have devoted their lives with untiring zeal and 
honest purpose to labors for the promotion of the science and 
art of medicine, hoping to be able to establish them upon a 
solid foundation, but have most signally failed. The " regu- 
lar profession," the life and soul of it, is now in a state of 
paralysis, It has lost its prestige, power of controlling the 
public sentiment. For it has lost its confidence in medicine 
to a great extent, and yet clings to its old ignis fattens idea of 
"wrong action" — "tendency to death," or antagonism 
of some kind lurking in or around what is called dis- 
ease ; and along with this idea, the correlative one of "do 
something " to subvert and destroy the subversive tendency 
must necessarily co-exist. This position of the medical fac- 
ulty — comprising a set of men that are not surpassed in in- 
tellectual and moral greatness by any other profession or set 
of men on earth — has opened wide the flood-gates to every 
species of charlatanism ; and all kinds of quack remedies 
have flowed in even to super-abundance. The popular demand 
is — as it should be, if the Heteropathic doctrine of disease 
is true — give us something for the removal of disease ; some- 
thing that you can give a positive assurance will be effectual 
to that end. Empiricism is ready to supply the demand, fur- 
nish the material and give the positive assurance. 

In the treatment of most of the ordinary diseases of de- 
bility, Orthopathy meets with but little opposition from the 
first class of Old School medical men who have had much 
practice and have been careful observers of results ; but 
from the subalterns of that school, who have been merely 
servile empirics, and from all unprofessional empirics, for- 
eign and domestic, opposition proves too overwhelming to 
admit of a regular course of "no medicine" treatment in 
chronic cases with any degree of satisfaction, in most places 
at the present time, except in a few instances. Stimulants 
appear to great advantage throughout the whole field of feeble 



198 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

vitality in gome shape and quantity. And in this grand dem- 
onstration King Alcohol is master magician. A little 
brandy and water, brandy sling, cherry bounce, rum sling, 
egg-nog, milk punch, gin sling, champagne, sherry, and a 
host of other wines — including those of American manufac- 
ture, grape, currant, raspberry, etc. etc. — ale, lager beer, 
Hostetter's Bitters, etc. etc., ad infinitum, may be so used as to 
appear to marvelous advantage, not only for once, but 
through a protracted illness, in many cases. And what is the 
physico-philosophy of it ? Life is sustained by vital prop- 
erties ; these, in their elementary form, are a fixed quantity* 
worked out by an unceasing gradual operation, by night and 
by day, in health and in impaired health, until the elementary 
material is exhausted. Debility results from a deficiency of 
present available vital properties. In a natural process of 
recuperation expenditure of power is kept within the income 
in order to meet present and pressing exigencies, let the de- 
bility and its accruing derangements be what they may ; and 
as soon as the difficulty which has been the occasion of the 
phenomenal demonstration is surmounted, and the reposito- 
ries of power sufficiently replenished to make it safe and pru- 
dent to elevate depressed action and remove debility, it will 
be done. No earthly skill or power can better this internal • 
arrangement, any more than man can better any of God's 
" handiwork." Stimulants act on the principle of the spur, 
" increase action, but diminish the power of that action ;" 
always leave less of power in any part on which they expend 
their action than there was in that part before they acted upon 
it. Dr. D. says that stimulants should not be given in large 
quantities and at long intervals ; but in small doses, oft re- 
peated, so as to keep up a steady, moderate action. This 
makes not a particle of difference so far as the principle 
under discussion is concerned. The law of stimulation is the 
same under all circumstances, and is simply that of exhaus- 
tion. If you stimulate largely, you exhaust largely. If you 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 199 

have a moderate stream of excitation, you have a correspond- 
ing steady moderate stream of exhaustion. One drop of alco- 
hol, when it is spread on living material on vrhich it can exert 
its peculiar action, expends itself in that action, whether it is 
alone or is accompanied by a hundred, thousand, or tens of 
thousands of other drops. Each drop acts for itself, does all 
the mischief it can do — and it can do nothing but mischief — 
and requires a given amount of life force to repair the mis- 
chief so far as it is reparable. And it makes no difference in 
this respect whether it is pure, unmixed alcohol, or is diluted 
with water, or is mixed up with other vile ingredients, as in 
Hostetter's Stomach Bitters, ale or lager beer, or is artfully 
concealed in pies and cakes. A portion of the evil perpetrated 
by alcohol and other stimulants is not reparable in the life- 
time of the individual on whom it has been inflicted. In 
ordinary constitutions the sum of irreparable injuries by 
stimulation, though small and insignificant in their separate 
capacity, yet in a number of years amounts to a serious 
calamity, inasmuch as it serves to impede the vital oper- 
ations, and thus keeps them constantly depressed to a point 
or level where they are more easily thrown into derange- 
ment by any extraordinary occurrence, as a sudden and 
considerable change of weather, fatigue of body or mind, 
exposure to endemical influences that conduce to influenza, 
cholera, etc. 

The general idea of the consequences of a transgression of 
the laws of life, is well expressed by the Hon, Horace Mann 
in " Thoughts for a Young Man :" 

" Let the young man remember that for every offense 
which he commits against the laws of health, Nature will 
bring him into judgment. 

11 However graciously God may deal with the heart, all our 
experience proves that he never pardons stomachs, muscles, 
lungs, or brains. These must expiate their offenses wwvicari- 



200 TB.E TREE OF LIFE. 

ously. Nay, there are obvious and numerous cases of vio- 
lated physical laws where Nature, with all her diligence and 
severity, seems unable to scourge the offender enough during 
his life-time, so she goes on plying her scourge upon his 
children and children's children after him, even to the third 
and fourth generations. 

"The punishment is entailed upon posterity; nor human 
laws, nor human device can break the entailment. And in 
these hereditary inflictions, Nature disdains alike the primo- 
geniture laws of England and the salic laws of France. All 
the sons and all the daughters are made inheritors, not in 
aliquot parts, but, by a kind of malignant multiplication in 
the distemper, each inherits the whole." 



Example of Extreme Debility. 

In the fall of 1822, Miss Ann Hurd, with genuine typhus 
fever, that continued for a number of weeks, became exceed- 
ingly debilitated, and for a week was scarcely able to move a 
limb, and twice in twenty-four hours would seem just on the 
point of entering the dark valley. 

The most alarming of these sinking turns occurred about 
midnight ; and in one of these, to all human appearance, 
she passed away from earth. I closed her eyes, the family 
turned away weeping, and Mrs. Pool, her nurse, said, " I 
am glad to see her die so gently." In a few moments I per- 
ceived a slight heaving of the breast. Breathing returned, 
and from that time, gradually for awhile, she rose to her for- 
mer good health. 

In this fall of 1822, the typhus fever was very prevalent 
in Derby. I was the only physician in Derby proper at 
that time, and none died that year with typhus fever under 
my care, though many sank very low with it. There were 
nine cases of marked severity in one family, that of Mr. 



PHYSICAL BEGENERACT. 201 

William J. French — Mr. French, wife, six children, and a 
sister of Mrs. French, comprising the whole household. For- 
tunately, Isaac Treat's case was among the first of that sea- 
son, and cured me entirely of trying to " help Nature' ' by 
means of morbific agencies. 
9* 



OHAPTEE XII. 

AN EPISODE. 

Appeal to the Reason and Common Sense oe Non-Medical 

Readers. 

At this point it may be pertinent and useful to inquire into 
the rationale of two opposite views of disease — the old one, 
which makes disease to consist in wrong subversive action, 
tending to the destruction of life ; and the new one, which re- 
gards disease as a modification of Jiealthy action, still subject 
to the laws of life that control all vital action, and, therefore, 
however much it may deviate from the usual standard of 
healthy action, it must still be right action. A little attention 
to this subject by persons while in health may save them 
much perplexity and anxiety when sickness is upon them. 
Look at the rationality and irrationality of the two conflicting 
theories, and establish and fortify in your own minds the 
plausibility of one theory or the other by a fair argumentative 
collation of well authenticated historic facts, and facts within 
your own observation and experience ; founding the whole on 
what may appear to you to be most in accordance with the 
general analogy and laws of Nature. Napoleon Bonaparte 
said to his physician, " Doctor, no physicing. We are a 
machine made to live ; we are organized for that purpose ; 
such is our nature. Do not counteract the living principle ; 
let it alone ; leave it the liberty of defending itself ; it will do 
better than your drugs." 

Is this rational or irrational ? A few days since an es- 
(202) 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 203 

teemed physician asked me if I thought the vital properties 
were intelligent — knew where they could expend their strength 
to the best advantage ? I told him they were under a law 
that knew what disposition to make of them. Outside of the 
voluntary powers of man, all matter and forces, or agencies, 
are punctiliously subject to law ; and thereby universal order, 
beauty, and harmony prevail in the physical world, when not 
disturbed by the insane action of man's freedom of will. In 
the animal kingdom we have a marvel in the industry and 
skill of the " little busy bee." With what exactness it con- 
structs its honey-comb cells. Uniform in all places and at all 
times. It is shut up by instinctive impulse to the perform- 
ance of this cunning workmanship. In the vegetable king- 
dom, the number, variety, and qualities of the products of 
natural law that attest its divine Authorship, " are past find- 
ing out." Take one example : an apple tree, that by multiplicity 
of grafting bears different kinds of apples. The sap or nutri- 
mental material from which all of the apples are formed, as it 
circulates in one branch, is converted into a delicious 
sweet apple. Passing into another branch, an exquisitely 
sour apple is elaborated. While in the other branches, the 
saccharine and acid qualities are nicely blended, and choice 
apples of different degrees of tartness are produced. 

In each branch of the tree the secretory function, variegated 
by grafting, takes the common aliment and compels its molec- 
ular particles to assume attitudes that shall not only fix the 
juice of the apple of its own production, so that it shall differ 
in taste from the apples grown by either of the other branches, 
but the apple is made to differ from the others in its external 
appearance, in size, shape, and color. One branch presents a 
handsome red apple ; another branch, a fair white apple ; a 
third branch, a pretty striped apple ; a fourth branch, an 
apple with a handsome white face and a delicate beautiful 
flushed cheek, etc. 

What an assemblage of stupendous and sublime wonders 



204 THE TBEE OF LIFE. 

does such a tree afford ! How infinitely surpassing human 
comprehension ! A man might devote a life-time to an un- 
remitting anatomical and physiological study of the apple 
tree, without gaining a particle of knowledge to aid him in 
determining the nature or character of the organic secretory 
function of either branch of the tree — aside from the external 
demonstrations — the natural history of its productions. He 
could not, by any amount of anatomizing and physiologi- 
cal research, decide whether the tree could produce an apple 
of any description. 

Let us now turn our attention to the crowning piece of 
mechanism of the Divine Architect — the human physical sys- 
tem. And here the momentous question that meets us at the 
threshold of our investigation is this : Can the great general 
law of the animal economy, ordained and established to pre- 
side over and control the motions of the body, jointly and 
severally be relied upon as adequate to the management of 
the vital properties at all times, whether there are many or 
few of them, in point of fidelity and ability ? 

And in the investigation and decision of this question, the 
non-professional man stands upon a par with the professional 
man ; for reference by both must be to facts from tinder 
development of natural organic law in the different depart- 
ments of the great physical world, for evidence for or against 
the plausibility of any theory that may be raised in regard to 
natural law in general, and to testimony from clinical practice 
to decide for or against the reliability of the vital economy in 
man in particular. 

When we take a survey of the honey bee, we must con- 
clude at once that all that art can do for it is to give it 
comfortable quarters, guard it against the moth and all depre- 
dating insects, and supply it with ample clover fields. Then, 
if it has sufficient health and strength it will construct its 
cells and fill them with honey. Art can in no wise improve 
its instinctive vital proclivities. And in regard to the apple 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 205 

tree, when the horticulturist has faithfully performed his duty, 
made all the external circumstances favorable for internal 
operations, what finite power can beneficially interpose to 
"regulate, balance, and direct" the law of growth and fructifi- 
cation ? How is it with respect to "the house I live in?" Is 
there a* probability or possibility that the economy of life 
which has the working power in its charge will relax its 
grasp of these forces so that they may take on wrong or sub- 
versive action, and endanger the life of the whole organ- 
ism ? Or may the law of life itself become recreant of its 
high trust and misdirect the vital forces, or a portion of them, 
and thereby create discord in the system, disturbing its peace, 
and threatening its destruction ? The doctors think that 
some of these unfortunate occurrences do take place in dis- 
ease ; although they admit that in a healthy state of the 
bodily functions, the law of the animal economy is trustworthy. 
Di\ D. says, " We all believe that in good health the laws of 
life work to admiration, and can not be benefited or improved 
in their management of the internal affairs of the system by 
artificial interference ; but in disease it is otherwise. Here 
there is an inversion of right action, and the tendency of the dis- 
eased action is toward destruction, and this should be arrested 
by the hand of art. And in the treatment of disease we are 
to be governed by the symptoms. 

When these are being aggravated, growing worse and 
worse, the action is wrong, subversive of life ; but when the 
symptoms are improving, growing better and better, the 
action is right, tending to build up and sustain life. The 
province of the physician is to use any and all safe and suit- 
able means to check and turn back wrong action, and encour- 
age and support the right, healthy action." This is a fair ex- 
position of the wrong action theory, according to the popular 
idea of it. Is it rational, and do facts, fairly construed, sup- 
port it ? First, is it rational ? 

In the apple tree, the specimen we have selected from the 



206 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

vegetable kingdom for illustration, we see with what astonish- 
ing force and precision the different branches of the law of 
production, each for itself, controls and disposes of the com- 
mon constructive material. And is it not a natural and 
rational conclusion, reasoning a priori, from what we know 
of the works of Creation and Providence, that "we are a 
machine made to live ;" that our Creator has so thoroughly 
impressed the general law of our physical being with an in- 
stinctive inclination or tendency to maintain the life of the 
organism, that it must, at all times and under all circum- 
stances, use what power it has, be it more or less, with a wise 
adaptation to the end in view— the prolongation of life ? 
Under a flush of power, good health is a natural consequence ; 
under a paucity of power, feeble health is unavoidable. In 
some extreme cases, it is requisite that sudden and great 
changes shall be made in the appropriation and distribution 
of the living principle ; such changes as will necessitate in- 
tense suffering and fearfully alarming appearances. 

The principle or rule of action is, that wherever danger 
threatens the hardest, any forces that can be attracted to that 
part without creating greater danger in some other quarter 
shall repair to it, whatever of suffering or appalling aspect 
may result therefrom. 

Ordinarily, feelings and appearances are respected ; but 
when life is at stake, they are disregarded. Is this view of 
our subject giving the vital economy an incredible amount of 
discernment and discrimination? Take an example of the 
law of crystallization in the mineral kingdom, where interests 
immensely inferior to those concerned in human life are at 
Ftake, and then consider whether the intelligent character 
here attributed to the law of life is beyond belief. Dissolve 
a piece of the well-known substance called alum in water, 
and let the excess of water above the quantity needed for re- 
crystallization be evaporated gradually, and the salt will be 
reformed in exactly its former shape, which consists of eight 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 207 

equal sides called an octahedron. Now let tKe imagination 
try to comprehend the infinity or divinity of governmental 
agency compressed in what is here called the law of crystal- 
lization, that can so control and arrange the minute particles 
of alum as they are about to take their places in compact and 
solid form, that they shall present a figure with just eight 
sides of equal dimensions, every surface regular and smooth? 
and all the lines and angles drawn with mathematical ac- 
curacy ; and this, too, if the experiment is repeated thousands 
of times. Nature makes no mistakes ; is uniformly governed 
by principle, and harmonizes in her action with the particular 
law by which she is to be governed — always does the best she 
can under existing circumstances. 

The idea of wrong action in the human system by vital 
machinery is as preposterous as to suppose that there may be 
wrong action in any other department of fixed natural law — 
as to imagine that the law of gravitation may become be- 
wildered and inverted in its action, and turn streams of water 
about and send them running up hill. 

Here are the two antithetic theories — wrong and right 
action. One of them must be true and the other false, so far 
as a fundamental principle is concerned. Which of them ap- 
pears the most rational, viewed in the light of general anal- 
ogy ; and which of them is the best sustained by facts ? 
In the first place, what results should we naturally expect 
would flow from the different kinds of clinical practice as ad- 
ministered by physicians of all schools, and by quacks of 
every description, including domestic quackery, on the sup- 
position that disease is right action — is impaired healthy 
action ; the tendency of all remaining vital activity being un- 
falteringly in the right direction toward the recovery of lost 
health ? Just what we do find to be the result of such prac- 
tice. Nature with but one aim before her moves on majes- 
ically in her recuperative work and does it up as fast and as 



208 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

effectually as she can under the circumstances which she 
meets with in the prosecution of it. 

In the cases where the perturbating treatment is the 
strongest, the natural order of the renovating process is the 
most disturbed, irregular, and protracted, and the event 
rendered proportionally doubtful. In cases where the hostile 
treatment is moderate, the general course of the recuperative 
work is not much disturbed in its progress or materially 
lengthened or hazarded in its issue. And where the treat- 
ment is truly hygienic, fulfilling the natural indications and 
conditions of impaired feeble life, there is great regularity in 
the curative process, the period of duration the shortest, 
probability of final recovery the greatest, and recovered 
health the most firmly established. And what would most 
likely be the course and ending of diseases under the differ- 
ent kinds of treatment which they would get by regular and 
irregular practitioners, if disease was an antagonism to health, 
in its nature and tendency subversive of life, justly repre- 
sented by a house being on fire, or " a certain noxious some- 
thing to be destroyed by medicine, as an acid by an alkali?" 
In this case the result would be, that physicians who had 
great depth of penetration and research ; who had acquired 
extensive and accurate diagnostic knowledge and skill ; had 
obtained a thorough and familiar acquaintance with means 
adapted to counteract disease, and an easy art of applying 
them, would make rapid and sure work of demolishing the 
enemy and restoring health. 

Under the treatment of physicians who possessed but in- 
different qualifications for " discerning, distinguishing, pre- 
venting, and curing diseases," the chance of recovery would 
be small in most disorders. And if physicians were to make 
a mistake in the selection and use of remedies, administer 
coinciding instead of counteracting means ; throw spirits of 
turpentine on to the fire instead of water, disease would soon 
put an end to life, the building would burn . down rapidly. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 209 



And in cases where disease had got well established in the 
system and there was nothing done to check its progress, 
death would be inevitable. Now every body knows that noth- 
thing like such results follow in the train of different kinds of 
practice. On the contrary, it would puzzle a lawyer to tell what 
practice was, apparently, attended with the greatest success, 
if in a populous place he were to pass in review multitudi- 
nous treatment of the sick. There is a difference, a great 
difference in the resulting effects between good and bad treat- 
ment of depressed feeble human life, manifest, too, to those 
who are competent to judge of such matters ; but the pop- 
ulace do not discern it, and they are ready to accept and 
employ every description of pretenders to skill in curing dis- 
eases. And in a large majority of cases, Nature manages to 
restore her damaged machinery and revitalize it in spite of 
most oppressive and cruel treatment. This state of things is 
only reconcilable with the idea of right action in disease. It 
can be rationally accounted for on no other principle. And 
the doctrine of right action can now be substantiated beyond 
doubt or cavil by incontestable evidence of both a negative 
and positive character. 

I introduce this chapter in this connection in order to con- 
tribute my mite toward securing a united and persevering ef- 
fort by physiological reformers — and all men intend to be 
and should be physiological reformers — for breaking up the 
terrible delusion under which the world is laboring in regard 
to the use of stimulants. Of course, every man will want to 
know in what respects the world is deluded on the subject 
of stimulants before he engages in labor for the removal of 
the delusion. I will give in few words my view of the 
matter. 

First. Nature is always true to herself, moving undeviat- 
ingly onward and onward in the prescribed path of eternal, 
immutable law ; aiming always and steadily under all circum- 
stances toward the acme of perfection ; and with even a tol? 



210 TEJE TREE OF LIFE. 

erable degree of fair treatment on our part, would in due 
time, in our descendants, place us securely on that desirable 
eminence. 

Secondly. Illusive stimulation is the primary and most ef- 
fective obstacle to our physical, and by a law of sequence, 
mental elevation. Stimulants do something, they benefit or 
injure the body. They seem to do good ; they excite pleas- 
urable feelings. Pleasurable feelings are produced — in de- 
fective constitutions — on directly opposite principles. On one 
principle or basis, good feeling is simply the pleasure of a 
want supplied. When the blood lacks dilution, Nature sig- 
nifies her want of water by what we call thirst. Under these 
circumstances the reception of water affords us pleasure, 
sometimes very great pleasure, comparable to good news 
from a far country. Whenever a scarcity of nutriment 
prevails in the system, so that the millions On millions of 
little builders fail to get a supply of building material, 
these faithful, indefatigable workers ask us to replenish their 
stock ; and we call this request of theirs appetite. In suit- 
ably meeting the demands of a normal appetite, we are 
abundantly repaid in- good feeling. Stimulants never call up 
good feeling on this principle of supply of natural wants. 
There is never a want in any department of the body that 
they can meet and get therefrom a response of pleasurable 
sensation. They have to depend on an entirely opposite 
principle for working themselves into popular favor. They 
arouse a semblance of good feeling by doing violence to Nature 
instead of doing her good service. In sound constitutions, 
with pure sensibility, they have no chance for success in their 
nefarious work. Here they are spurned and abominated as 
aids to Nature. It is only where the sensibility and vital 
stability of parts have been dropped quite below a good 
healthy condition, that goading them up to extra effort will 
make the individual feel better. And stimulants are re- 
ceived into favor, and have an opportunity afforded them of 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 211 

displaying their power of working a little momentary apparent 
good, and much enduring positive evil, in proportion to the 
depravation of the parts on which they have adaptation for 
acting. 

This doctrine of stimulation is so hedged in and impregnally 
fortified by a wall of adamantine facts, that no sophistry, 
chicanery, or abstract reasoning can disturb it. Ample ex- 
perience of the most reliable character demonstrates that it 
is safe, and in the end eminently beneficial, for youngerly per- 
sons to abandon the use of stimulants at any and every stage 
of their use. It is safe for old people, but not as remunera- 
tive with them as it is with persons in earlier life. And it is 
not only safe and advantageous for persons to endure long 
sickness without stimulants from beginning to end of their 
complaining, but if an unfortunate invalid or sick person has 
been pressed down to within ten hours of his life by pow- 
erful stimulants, he will live a little longer by having them 
discontinued, in toto, than he will by having them con- 
tinued. 

In such cases, Nature rejoices in the opportunity thus af- 
forded her of uniting the remnant of her forces in efforts to 
save life and repair damages instead of having to employ a 
portion of them in defensive ]abor against merciless foes. 
The irrationality of using noxious or poisonous substances for 
hygienic purposes, in sickness or in health, is so glaring, and 
facts confirmatory of the inconsistency and ruinous nature of 
the practice are becoming so abundant and incontrovertible, 
that public attention will soon be aroused to a thorough con- 
sideration of the subject. It can not be long before parents, 
as they gather their families around the festive board and be- 
hold spread out before them a number of articles simple and 
compound that they must be aware are more or less obnox- 
ious to human life, will have sober reflections crowd through 
their minds. 

The world is not always to be fooled and led captive 



212 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

by Satan at his will. People will not commit suicide when 
they know what they are about. They are now commit- 
ting suicide of body, soul, and spirit, because " They know 
not what they do." A thorough airing of the medical or 
stimulant delusion will lead to the detection and breaking up 
of all other delusions. Let the sovereign people once get a 
fair view of the nature and extent of the stupendous fraud 
which they have been practicing upon themselves in the use 
of anti-vitality substances, and they will not be slow in dis- 
covering and ^covering whatever mask may envelop any 
doctrine, opinion, or theory that betrays the least suspicion of 
harboring or countenancing error in practice, whether it is of 
a physiological or psychological character. Let there be, 
therefore, a united and determined effort by all lovers of 
truth and righteousness to scatter to the winds of heaven the 
stimulating delusion. And in the prosecution of this in- 
quisitorial and expurgatorial labor, let special attention be 
paid to the " little foxes that spoil the vines." Give no 
quarter to the doctrine or practice of " moderate use," even 
of "pure alcohol" in any of its delusive and fascinating 
forms. 

In closing this appeal, let me address a few words espe- 
cially to youth, and those who are still in the prime and vigor 
of their days. Friends of humanity! are you aware that 
you are living at a most eventful period of the world, 
when there are to be rapid turnings and overturnings that 
will introduce? a transcendently splendid future ; and that it is 
your glorious privilege and imperious duty to be devoted 
and earnest co-workers in these revolutionary scenes ? Pre- 
suming that you purpose to throw the whole weight of your 
influence in favor of God and suffering humanity in the grow- 
ing and decisive strife between truth and error, Christ and 
Belial, I will offer a few suggestions for your reflection and 
the government of your actions. 

Try to form an estimate by mental arithmetic, of about how 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 213 

many hundreds of millions of dollars are expended annually 
in the United States for stimulants, or poisonous substances 
to be used solely for the purpose — not designedly, except by 
the author of all evil — of breaking down and crushing 
human physical life. Cast an eye over the land and take 
note of the apothecary establishments that almost darken the 
horizon, the thickly studded groceries, the glowing distil- 
leries and the foaming breweries. How many millions of dol- 
lars are expended annually in this country for alcoholic liquors, 
for tea, for coffee, for spices, for tobacco, for drugs and 
medicine under regular medical seal, and for nostrums under 
the more profuse dispensation of vile quackery ? If all the 
ale and lager beer that is turned into human stomachs in 
the course of a year in enlightened America was poured 
into an extended excavation, how much of a sea would it 
make, and how many ships of the line would it float and 
give ample room for maneuvering in ? When you have 
run up this estimate to your satisfaction, add to it all the 
evil and debasing practices that are directly and indirectly 
the offspring of drinking habits, which tend to debase human 
life and character ; then reflect that all the accumulated evils 
herein contemplated are resting with mountain weight upon 
the unsubdued natural buoyancy of common humanity, pre- 
venting it from mounting upward into a pure salubrious at- 
mosphere, to the possession and enjoyment of health, pros- 
perity, tranquillity, and universal happiness. Reflect further 
that this huge mountain of iniquity is based upon, and 
has its being secured to it by, the false assumption that the use 
of mild stimulants may and does in some way uphold and 
strengthen feeble vitality. This doctrine of the moderate 
use of stimulants, and especially for the sick and feeble, is 
absolutely the key-stone of the arch on which rests, essentially, 
the stupendous complicated fabric of all wrong doing that is 
crushing our terribly-abused physical life. Knocking out 
this key-stone will drop the fabric and end our troubles. 



214 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

And nothing short of this will do it. Do you ask how this key- 
stone can be knocked out ? The best method of doing it is 
a very simple, peaceable, and effectual one. Form yourselves 
into physiological associations as compactly and conveniently 
as you can for the purpose of mutual instruction and sup- 
port. Study carefully and thoroughly the laws of life as per- 
taining to soul and body — for this study, theoretically and 
practically, must be made a unit to insure success. Arrange 
and manage your household and business affairs on a 
plain, economical, but not parsimonious scale, that you may 
have every thing that is necessary for the highest health of 
the body, and at the same time be able to command sufficient 
leisure for mental culture and social enjoyment. Be espe- 
cially careful to put yourselves under the guidance and 
guardianship of the Father of mercies, and to honor him in 
all your ways ; for he hath said, " Him that honoreth me, I 
will honor." And be careful, too, to keep the Saviour with 
you ; for without him you can do nothing. 

Thus established, use plain wholesome food, and discard 
every thing from your table of a stimulant character, even to 
dill and caraway. Be particular and strenuous at this point, 
and let no "one, friend or foe, divert you from this straight line 
policy. Nothing could induce you to vitiate your moral con- 
science by stealing a little, swearing a little, or by committing 
any immorality a little. Be as careful of your physical con- 
science. Pursue the course here indicated undeviatingly, in 
health and in sickness — after a little there will be no sickness — 
and you will teach the world a lesson that it is very hard to 
learn, and that nothing but occular demonstration will effect- 
ually teach it. This will knock out the key-stone and let 
down the arch, with all its superincumbent abominations. 
Remember that " the kingdom of God is within you," and 
that you must " work out your own salvation." Every indi- 
vidual has the germ of perfect man and womanhood in him 
and herself, to be evolved in the grand unfolding of human 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 215 

destiny that lias auspiciously commenced, and that will " go 
on to perfection." There must be union, perfect union, a 
close soul-inspiring and beatific fraternizing ; but individu- 
ality must not be lost sight of. Every one must see to it that 
he and she acts well his and her part. " He that doeth right- 
eousness, is righteous ;" and there is no other righteousness 
than that which is done. Do not expect too much of frail hu- 
manity at the onset. It would be a stretch of credulity to 
beheve that a set of old, inveterate topers, just started on a 
well-considered and determined course of total abandonment 
of their cups — no matter with how much honest zeal — could 
be met at every turn in their daily walks by alcoholic bever- 
ages bubbling up before them in their most fascinating forms, 
without some of them being seduced to a violation of their 
total abstinence pledge. And it would be about as difficult to 
believe that any considerable number of persons, with selfish- 
ness " bred in the 'bones," could come together and have prop- 
erty thrown into common stock, without having some of them 
play the part of Annanias and Sapphira. But ' ' with God 
all things are possible." 

Selfishness is an exotic, demoniacal and vitiating ele- 
ment of abnormal humanity, and must be subdued. And 
there is no way of subduing it but to starve it to death. So 
long as it is fed it will live and thrive. Make no direct 
assault upon existing institutions, however defective they may 
be in your estimation, but respect them as the ordination of 
Heaven; for "whatever is, is right" — providentially. Setup 
your ideal standard of right, according to your best joint wis- 
dom ; and then with wise and prudent discretion, youthful zeal, 
and manly vigor, set your face like a flint toward a practical 
attainment of the end in view. Obstacles, serious obsta- 
cles, you will meet with in your endeavors to knock out 
the last props of Satan's earthly kingdom ; but solace your- 
selves with reflection that every obstacle or degree of ob- 
stacle effectually surmounted, "lawfully," is so much accom- 



216 TSJE TMEE OF LIFE. 

plished for your posterity and ail coming generations. It 
is too late in the day for radical reform on "the founda- 
tion of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself be- 
ing the chief corner-stone,' ' to fall back, so* as to need to be 
done over. 



OHAPTEE XIII. 

GENEEAL DIRECTIONS KESUMED. 

Itf some conditions of the system, the calorific or heat- 
making function is so impaired and enfeebled that it is una- 
ble for the while to furnish as much heat to the body as, 
under the circumstances, could be used to advantage in the 
restorative process ; especially is this true in some typhoid 
affections, more particularly in low petecchial fevers. It is 
then the duty of art to supply the deficiency. At other times, 
the exhalants are depressed in their action, and fail to carry 
off the superabundant heat, as in high inflammatory affections, 
and it affords some temporary alleviation of feeling to have 
the body sponged over with cool water, or to have currents of 
cool air passed over it. In spasmodic affections of all kinds, 
art should interpose to prevent injury from violent struggles 
and contortions. In distressing cramps of the extremities, 
it is sometimes very useful to bandage the extremities with 
soft flannel rollers.. 

Patience and warm flannel were recommended by Dr. Cul- 
len a hundred years ago for chronic rheumatism, and no 
better remedy can be devised for that complaint. 

Art can furnish the flannel, and often do much toward the 
possession of patience ; though some rheumatic persons, with 
naturally a touchy disposition, find it" difficult to "let pa- 
tience have her perfect work." But it does no good to fret, 
for instead of abating the very uncomfortable upbraidings 
of the physical conscience, it tends to aggravate them. At 
10 (217) 



218 TRE TREE OF LIFE. 



any rate, if you can not " be clothed with, humility," keep 
well covered with flannel, and muster resolution enough to 
let the rheumatism " have " its "perfect work." Mr. Heze- 
kiah Nichols, a very respectable farmer, was severely afflicted 
with rheumatism that passed from the acute to the chronic 
form, and seemed in no mood for leaving abrubtly. I coun- 
seled a careful and warm nursing of the unwelcome visitor, 
as being in the long run the shortest, cheapest, and best 
method of obtaining a final leave of it. Mr. Nichols and 
family were satisfied with my advice, and were disposed to i 
carry it into full effect ; but in my absence an arrant quack 
called at the house and, with unmeasured assurance, told Mr. 
Nichols that he could have him on his feet in less than a 
week as limber as he ever was. Showed a long list of 
remarkable cures and commendations. No wonder the af- 
flicted man was duped. A thorough application of a penetrat- 
ing embrocation was made to the extremities, with the inter- 
nal use of a pungent stimulus to " guard the stomach." In 
less than twenty-four hours the man was entirely helpless. 
Every limb was paralyzed ; he could not move hand or foot. 
I was sent for "in post haste," some distance from my 
patient. Much apology was made for going counter to my 
advice, with evident mortification and chagrin. I reminded 
Mr. Nichols that "wit once bought, was worth twice taught," 
and told him that as he had paid dear for the whistle that 
time, he had better make it worth as much to him as he 
could. 

In some cases of chronic rheumatism in more advanced 
stages than this, where Nature has nearly finished her repairs, 
laid in a good stock of nervous energy, and is about ready to 
get up steam and start the locomotive, a similar treatment to 
that practiced on Mr. Nichols would work wonders in, appa- 
rently, the right direction. 

In Mr. Nichols's case the repairs were far from being 
brought to a conclusion, and there was no ralliable force in 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 219 

store to be hurried into the field, either for self-defense, or 
for external demonstration ; and what little power there was 
in the muscles of voluntary motion at the time, was easily 
overcome. 

The " patience and warm flannel " remedy is adapted to 
many other difficulties beside chronic rheumatism. But as 
patience is not a mercantile commodity, and can not be 
counted upon with accuracy in making out artistic prescrip- 
tions, I will leave it out of the compound and speak of flan- 
nel alone. It will be well when all human constitutions shall 
be sound and vigorous enough to go from infancy to old age 
without careful nursing; but that time has not yet come. 
Some infants have iron enough in their fabrics to enable 
them to bear rough usage. They may be plunged at once 
into cold water, and as they ripen into years maybe subjected 
to the rigors of cold winters with scanty covering. But with 
most children of the present day it is far otherwise ; and 
multitudes of them are cut off in the bud of life ; suffer 
serious and permanent structural derangements, or have some 
of their essential organs imperfectly developed through lack 
of a little seasonable care. Feeble constitutions will often 
endure with impunity great changes of weather and of 
climate, if they can be saved from the effect upon their feeble 
frames of sudden atmospheric changes. And for this purpose 
there is nothing equal to good flannel. It was hardly hyper- 
bole for the Paddy to say, " Good warm flannel is always 
warm and dry, let it be ever so cold and wet." Old or young 
people, who are easily affected in some important department 
of their bodies by exposure to sudden changes of weather, 
should be habitually incased in flannel. In consequence of a 
serious constitutional defect in my pulmonic tissue of organs, 
I have worn flannel next the skin, summer and winter, for 
many years ; never go a day without it — woolen in winter 
and cotton in summer. The wearing of flannel is no bar to 
the use of means generally for giving the system the piinci- 



220 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

pie of endurance — a point of the utmost importance to be 
attended to — but, on the contrary, affords a great advantage 
in the use of such means*. 

A delicate person with the surface of the body well 
guarded by flannel can much more safely and profitably ex- 
pose him or herself to drafts of air, changes of weather or 
low temperature, than he or she could without such a safe- 
guard. "When the skin is accustomed to the presence of flan- 
nel it is in no wise injured by it, and the body needs less of 
other covering. 

There are what may aptly be called critical periods in 
slender human life, from infancy to advanced age, growing 
out of new developments or essential changes called for at 
different stages of life's progress. Teething forms one of 
these changes. After a few months many children have 
trouble with their teeth, and the reason of it is obvious. 
Teeth cost something. There must be a special outlay of 
vital force to bring them forward, and there is not enough in 
store in the depository pertaining to the group of organs con- 
cerned in teeth making for this purpose without curtailing 
appropriations to other organs ; and these parts are thereby 
left so deficient in sustaining energy that they falter in their 
action ; and this faltering is manifested by various phenomena 
called symptoms. The child becomes feverish, fretful, with 
a disturbed state of the bowels, and, in some difficult cases, 
rapid wasting of the flesh, and occasionally with fits. This 
is the best that can be done under the circumstances. The 
child must go without teeth or submit to the penalty of an- 
cestral transgressions. Patient and careful nursing is all that 
is called for on the part of the mother. Keep the babe well 
covered with flannel, dandle it as its unfortunate condition 
calls for, let it have the breast at suitable intervals, and as 
you value the future welfare of the child, eschew " Wins- 
low's soothing syrup," and all such baby quieters. As 
the gum swells over a protruding tooth, it may be rubbed 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 221 

gently, occasionally, with any smooth hard substance, and 
as the tooth nears the surface, the gum over it may be di- 
vided. 

Early in childhood there are extra appropriations of vital 
force made to the head for the purpose of expanding the 
brain ; and this necessarily includes an enlargement of the 
bony structure, as well as the soft parts. The heads of chil- 
dren, in proportion to the size of their bodies, are larger than 
in adult age. To turn one of these critical corners success- 
fully, and without manifesting any tokens of straitened cir- 
cumstances, is often more than the economy of life can do ; 
and consequently we have brain affections of various kinds 
with and without fever. Occasionally these brain affections 
terminate fatally in effusions of water, called dropsy of the 
brain. 

Mr. Dolbere, for a season a resident of Oberlin, lost two 
children with dropsy on the brain, from two to three years 
old, before he came to Oberlin. He brought with him a 
little daughter two or three years old, his only surviving 
child. The little girl soon began to complain in a manner 
presaging an ending similar to that of the other children. 
Mr. Dolbere, who had given some, attention to my views and 
method of treatment of disease, requested me to take charge 
of the case and manage it as if the child were my own. The 
disease passed through the several changes common to this 
affection, to a fixed apoplectic state — the pupils of the eyes di- 
lated to their utmost extent, with total insensibility to light 
and touch. In this condition, motionless, pale, and almost 
breathless, it lay four or five days, and returned to life and 
health. This case, like all other defective states of the body 
that pass triumphantly through a liquidating process, is il- 
lustrative of the nature of disease. 

The cerebral capillaries need a fuller development and a 
higher vital endowment. And so imminent and pressing has 
this necessity become, that the general operations of life are 



222 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

• 

suspended in order that all the departments of life may be- 
come subsidiary to the accomplishment of an object so vital 
to the well being of them all. The case admits of no other 
construction in consonance with the facts of it. If means 
had been used to counteract and break up the action of a 
suppositive antagonism that had got a "foothold" in the 
system, there would be some ground for a Heteropathic 
theory of disease to rest upon. But no such means were 
used. 

With the two former children, break-up means were 
thoroughly tried ; and all the breaking up they effected, or 
could effect, was wrought out upon unoffending vital organs ; 
for there was nothing else for them to act upon. And 
whether their action was needed to make an end to life 
can not be known in the present limited state of knowledge 
on the subject. With this child no attempt was made to 
modify or abate a single symptom, except by having the child 
well cared for, as it was by kind parents and friends. While 
passing through the febrile stage, water was needed, called 
for and given freely, and all its little wants were promptly at- 
tended to. When it passed into the apoplectic state, nothing 
could be done for it, Orthopathically, but to let it lie and 
breathe — what it did breathe — good air. From first to last 
the internal economy was in no wise interfered with in its im- 
portant restorative effort. 

A critical period of great moment occurs with some young 
people of defective constitutions as they approach the age 
and state of puberty. And the derangements of these 
periods press with much greater severity and danger upon 
females than upon males, because the baneful, constitution- 
ruining fashions and customs of society bear more heavily 
upon the former than they do upon the latter ; especially is 
this true in what is regarded as the upper circle of polished 
society. Great, essential, and expensive developments are to 
be made, and, as explained in teething, there is not force 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 223 

enough in store to bring forward and complete the changes that 
are to constitute man and womanhood without embarrassing 
and deranging some of the established operations of life. 
These derangements will vary in kind, severity, and duration, 
in different individuals, according to the constitutional de- 
fects, and the vital condition of the tissue of organs imme- 
diately concerned in these operations in each case, respect- 
ively. 

Not unfrequently, females go down with some general 
and fatal decline in the passage of these critical periods, 
not so much in many cases from the magnitude of the in- 
trinsic difficulty with which Nature has to contend, as from 
the injudicious treatment which is pursued with them. The 
complainings are looked at in the light of Allopathy, or the 
Old School notion of disease, and treated accordingly ; and as 
they are in some instances protracted for months and even 
years, an interference with the natural and healthful opera- 
tion, in the form of what are falsely called tonics, such as 
bark and wine, spiced wine and wine bitters, zinc, iron, etc., 
and chlorotic abominations of various kinds, finally exhausts 
the vital energies and Nature yields the conflict. • 

The general mode of treatment in these cases may be reduced 
to a simple form by viewing the complainings from the Ortho- 
pathic stand-point. Nature has a great work in hand, and her 
plan and aim are to do it well, which she can not do at once, 
nor at all, without leaving some parts to suffer and complain at 
times, with the scanty means at her disposal. This is the grand 
epoch of human physical life, and should be well pondered 
and wisely provided for. In cases where it is clear that time 
will be required for a thorough accomplishment of the work, 
let the allotment be made without stint, whether it is to be 
for one year or for three years, and make due provision for a 
hearty co-operation of Art with Nature. The first installment 
of aid which Art is called upon to tender to the vital economy, 
especially in, the case of girls, is " patience and warm flan- 



224 TELE TREE OF LIFE. 

nel." And flannel, in the form of substantial woolen stock- 
ings, should envelop the feet ; for the sympathy or connection 
between the feet and the central organs is close and intimate, 
and if the feet are exposed to cold and dampness, the feeble 
central organs will be seriously affected thereby. At some 
future time, when the general state of the organism will 
admit of it, means and methods may be used for imparting 
condensation and toughness to the muscular fibers, so that 
the woman may leave off her flannel and be subjected to ordi- 
nary exposures without being injured thereby; but the present 
is a very inopportune season for that kind of work. With a 
good understanding of the pathological difficulties that are be- 
ing encountered, and a generous outlay of patience and warm 
flannel to start with, there need be little or no apprehension 
respecting the final issue. Nature will overcome formidable 
obstacles with small means, only give her time for it, and 
proper care, and about all that she asks for, in this respect, 
is food convenient for her, pure soft water for internal di- 
lution and external ablution, rest when she is weary, a 
cheerful, hopeful, and happy state of the mind, with freedom 
from care and brown study, and gentle exercise in the 
open air, when there is strength to bear it without fatigue. 
Local matters may be left to be regulated by the general 
economy. 

During the period of utero-ge station, women with defective 
constitutions — and there are but few women who have 
soundness and vigor of constitution sufficient to put them out 
of the pale of the present category — suffer more or less at dif- 
ferent stages of the term. These derangements, like all other 
bodily ills, come directly from deficiency of force. Vomiting 
is occasioned by deficiency of nerve power, or controlling 
energy. There is muscular power enough to act with consid- 
erable energy, and this obeys the primary law of muscular 
motion — simple contractility. The vomiting is not called up 
for the purpose of ejecting something from the stomach, for 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 225 

, * 

it comes on and continues sometimes for a number of days, 
whether there is anything in the stomach or not. If there 
is any thing in the stomach, friend or foe, it is thrown out 
without ceremony, and the vomiting will continue on until 
the nerve power is sufficiently restored to control and quiet 
the muscular action. 

Febrile disturbance, biliary derangements, and every variety 
of disordered action occurring in pregnancy result mainly 
from a diversion of power to the uterine tissue of organs, to 
aid in the work of reproduction. When there is power 
enough in store to commence and carry forward the repro- 
ductive process, without the necessity of an infringement upon 
the resources of other departments of life, none of them 
will be disturbed. And if any organ has a good supply of 
sustaining energy of its own, it will not be disturbed in the 
discharge of its function. In all cases, the general good of 
the whole system is consulted in the distribution of force, and 
no draft is made on any organ beyond its just proportion, so 
far as the general stock of power is concerned, which is 
alone subject to draft for general purposes. And in the 
apportionment of a draft order, respect is had to the impor- 
tance of organs in the sustentation of the vital compact. For 
example, the lungs are necessary to the maintenance of life ; 
for life could not be continued long without some action by 
the lungs. If, therefore, the lungs are in danger of giving 
out, they will draw to themselves power enough to sustain 
their action, if that amount of power is within their attract- 
ive influence, if it is at the sacrifice of fetal life, for mater- 
nal life is paramount to that of fetal life, and if one must 
fail for want of support, it must be the latter. 

I will state the main features of an extreme case, for 
explanatory and instructive purposes. Mrs. J. B., about five 
months advanced in pregnancy, suffered intensely with gene- 
ral spasms for more than forty-eight hours, with but trifling 
intermissions, exhausting in succession all the strong women 
10* 



226 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

in the neighborhood, and some of the men, in care of her. 
Under an apprehension that I was directing my treatment 
with a view to the prevention of an untimely birth — for I 
was then in my bread-pill administration and dealt out pills, 
powders, and drops liberally in this case — the women 
besought me with great earnestness to desist from that course 
and do what I could to save Mrs. B.'s life. "Non interven- 
tion," in fact, though not then in form, was the rule strictly 
adhered to on this occasion. My opinion was, that the life 
of the woman was the safest in the hands of Nature alone, so 
far as internal vital operations were concerned. Mild, coun- 
teracting or assauging means would bring no valid relief, and 
strong ones would do mischief. At length, Mrs. B. dropped 
into a profound lethargic state, in which she continued some 
twelve or fourteen hours, then came to herself, soon recov- 
ered a good degree of health and strength, fulfilled her pe- 
riod, had a. good accouchment, and both mother and child did 
well. 

It is in point to state here, that the spasms with which 
Mrs, B. was affected, though exceedingly distressing to her, 
and frightful to the attendants, to a practiced professional eye 
were of a very different character, and much less dangerous 
than the puerpural convulsions that sometimes occur in par- 
turient labor. 

In cases of this description, it was my rule and practice to 
interpose promptly for as speedy a delivery as was compati- 
ble with the safety of the mother and offspring, having 
especial reference to the life of the mother. Here the fruit 
of the womb is ripe for a separation from the parent 
stem, and there is not power enough to effect a timely and 
satisfactory separation, and Art can step in and " help Na- 
ture." 

There are critical periods in the latter stages of human life 
in some persons of defective constitutions, which render them 
liable to functional and structural derangements of a serious 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 227 

nature, especially in females in passing a peculiar " change 
of life." But they are all to be accounted for on the same 
general Orthopathic principles, and be treated on the same 
common sense method of management for all ordinary physi- 
cal derangements. 

Thus far in writing this work, I have dealt in general terms 
without stopping by the way to notice what might be offered 
as exceptions, in some cases, to general rules. There is no 
exception to the Orthopathic or right-action principle, so far 
as organs have freedom of action in their own spheres, with- 
out unfortunate complication with other parts. In stran- 
gulated hernia, a portion of intestine or other viscus has 
passed through an opening made by a laceration of muscular 
fibers. These crippled fibers close spasmodically upon the 
protruded portion and strangle it. It is the best that these 
fibers can do. They act in obedience to the lower law of 
their being, to -which alone they are now amenable. In this 
case, an exception must be made to the "do nothing" doc- 
trine in practice, or the strangulation will end in sphacela- 
tion and death. As soon as any one who has an inguinal 
hernia — these are about the only ones that are in much dan- 
ger of strangulation — finds a difficulty in reducing a pro- 
truded part, he should suffer no delay in the use of proper 
means for its reduction. He should place himself at once 
upon his back, and, by gentle efforts with his fingers, try to re- 
store the deranged part, taking care not to induce soreness 
in it. 

If a fair trial of this kind is unsuccessful, he should lie 
on his back with his shoulders lower than the hips, and have 
a quart of warm water thrown into the bowels, and at the 
same time have a large, moderately warm poultice laid over 
the hernia. In a few minutes, under the conjoined influence 
of the internal and external emolients, the depending water 
will retract the displaced bowel, or a little dexterous use of the 
fingers will put all right. If not, after a half-hour's trial, 



228 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



throw up more warm water, and renew and enlarge the poul- 
tice. If from too long delay, or from any other cause, adhe- 
sion has commenced, a surgeon should be called, and the 
knife used to liberate the incarcerated part, before mortifica- 
tion has commenced. Persons having ruptures should keep 
them well guarded by nicely adjusted trusses. 

There are a few, very few, emergencies or straits of ex- 
treme hazard in which men may be placed where something 
should be done instanter to excite a general rally of the 
vital forces and bring them into the field for conservative 
purposes, sooner and faster than they would come to the rescue 
if left to the operation and influence of natural law. The 
most prominent of these is the sudden asphyxia, or suspended 
animation, from drinking cold water in hot weather. It is 
not uncommon in some very hot seasons for men to drop 
suddenly senseless and helpless at the pump ; and a por- 
tion of them expire past all means of resuscitation. The 
sudden abstraction of heat from the heart and arteries sus- 
pends their action ; and the brain, being thus suddenly de- 
prived of the blood's influence, fails to send forth the nervous 
energies, and a general prostration of action ensues. This 
occurs only in old topers, whose excitability has been worn 
down and blunted by a long course of excitation or stimu- 
lation. 

The object to be aimed at in the treatment, is to 
arouse and quicken the activities of the system, and get the 
body warmed up again into natural life. For this purpose, 
nothing is more effectual, or can be more appropriate, than a 
sharp flagellation with the cowhide. I once announced this 
remedy in a lecture. At the close of the lecture, a woman 
came to the stand and told me that she had witnessed a 
successful application of this remedy, essentially, on an intem- 
perate young man in her neighborhood. The father was 
called, and informed that his son was lying senseless at the 
well from drinking cold water. He caught up a small cord 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 229 

of some length., made a convenient scourge of it, put it on 
to the young man smartly, and soon had him on his feet 
again. 

A man may find himself under circumstances in Tvhich he 
must exert himself to preserve life. For instance, he may be 
crossing a prairie of some extent and be overtaken with a 
sudden change in the weather, from temperate to extreme 
cold, with but slight covering. If his powers of resistance 
and endurance are feeble, and no means are used to keep up 
action, aside from voluntary effort on his part, the sudden 
abstraction of heat from the body may so depress arterial 
action, that the man will be in danger of freezing before all 
of the vital properties that might otherwise be brought into 
play can be advantageously exerted. If his own resolution 
fails him, as it will be likely to, let his robust companion ad- 
minister to him, now and then, a gentle switching. In this 
driving, compulsory process, care must be used in grading 
action ; for if motion is too slow, the man freezes ; and if 
his strength is exhausted unnecessarily, and he fails before 
reaching a place of safety, he freezes. 

Perhaps a little further exception may be made in favor of 
artificially quickening the action of parts that have been sud- 
denly injured, where the parts are not themselves flush with 
accommodating power to meet promptly the call made upon 
them for extra effort to repair the injury. When an ankle 
is sprained, it may be served for a few times, at short in- 
tervals, with cold water poured on it from a little height, as it 
can be borne ; then rubbed briskly, but lightly, and covered 
with warm flannel. This practice will call in some assistance 
from the neighboring depositories of power a little sooner 
than it would otherwise reach the injured vessels, and thus 
help them to sustain their action until the general economy 
has time to forward to them their full quota of power under 
their new circumstances. A few hours only will be required 
for this circumstantial accommodation ; and then proper 



230 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

dressings and care will be all that will be necessary to give 
the injured vessels a fair chance to recover their natural 
state. On the same principle, little bruises and pinches on 
other parts of the body may be gently rubbed, and well 
cared for, for a short time. 

Clinical Diet. 

So long as persons are confined to their beds without ap- 
petite, there is very little to be done for them by way of feed- 
ing. It is of no advantage to urge food upon the stomach 
when there is no digestive power to work it up. If nutri- 
mental substances lie a few hours in the warm bath of the 
stomach without being sufficiently vitalized to protect them 
from the action of chemical affinity, they will be converted 
into acrimonious fluids and gases, and be sources of mis- 
chief. 

There is never any danger of starvation so long as there 
are reserved forces sufficient to hold the citadel of life and 
start anew its mainsprings. For when sustenance becomes a 
prime necessity, the digestive apparatus will be clothed with 
power enough to work up some raw material, and a call 
made for it proportioned to the ability to use it. And if there 
is not power within the domain of life to save the organism, 
it must perish. No kind of aliment can carry life force into 
the system, or by any action, severally or jointly, create it 
within the body. 

A few simple articles of diet, and very simply cooked, 
should be relied upon, until there is considerable digestive 
ability well established. Bice is one of the best articles of 
diet for the sick. It is nutritious and easy of digestion. It may 
be pretty well boiled in water, and then have a little milk 
added to it, and simmered until it is cooked. Unbolted wheat 
meal is good cooked in a variety of forms ; as is also oat 
meal, tapioca, and other farinaceous substances. Corn meal 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 231 

in the form of pudding or gruel does well where it digests 
readily, especially in cold weather. 

Never use provocatives to appetite. If sweetening is used 
— and a little of it is admissible — it had better be refined 
loaf sugar, as this is less liable to fermentation in the stom- 
ach than brown sugar or syrup. 

INVALID EXEECISE. 

In passing through a grave, renovating process, rest, rest 
best, is the remedy. The vital organism has been seriously 
damaged, and the general economy of life can not effect a 
thorough repair, without making heavy drafts upon the mus- 
cles of voluntary motion, as well as on most or all of the other 
large departments of the body, for aid in carrying on the re- 
cuperative work. Until the crisis is past, therefore, no more 
motion should be indulged in than is necessary to relieve the 
tedium of sameness of posture. And after the crisis is past, 
great care should be exercised for some time, or till the ex- 
hausted coffers are suitably replenished of vital treasure, lest 
there be a relapse of the advancing and promising reparative 
labor. 

It should be well understood, and kept in mind, that 
neither exercise nor eating adds a particle of vitality to the 
stock in store, but, contrawise, diminishes it. Food is neces- 
sary for building purposes as timber and plank are for 
constructing and repairing the ship ; but in both cases, the 
material is useless, unless there are forces to work them into 
shape and fasten them in their places. Exercise of the vol- 
untary muscles is an absolute necessity to give them expan- 
sion, symmetry, and beauty of form, and solidity of fiber ; in the 
latter property reside their elasticity and principle of en- 
durance. 

When the muscles possess vitality enough to insure compact- 
ness and firmness of fiber, the more exercise they have the 



232 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

better. But if Ihe nervous energy falls snort of answering 
the purpose of condensation, the fiber is relaxed and en- 
feebled by the exercise. And what is true in regard to ex- 
ercise as applied to the muscles, is true also in respect to its 
application to the stomach and other organs.* 



OHAPTEE XIV. 

SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS. 

Ceoup. 

Coyer the anterior part of the neck and breast, from the 
chin down, with a soft linen or cotton cloth, spread over with 
tallow, and cover this with a good thickness of cotton batting, 
and have the whole well secured, so that the child in its strug- 
gles will not disturb it. There is no specific healing virtue 
in this dressing ; it merely serves to keep up a moist, uniform 
temperature of the skin, that the feeble vessels underneath 
may carry on their recuperative work without being liable to 
embarrassment from change of temperature and condition of 
their surface texture, between which and themselves there is a 
close sympathy. The nostrils may be smeared over occa- 
sionally with a little olive oil, or other mild limpid oil, with a 
view to a gentle lubrication of the dry membrane of the 
throat ; though but little stress is laid upon this application, 
and, if it annoys the child, let it be discontinued. In all other 
respects let the treatment of the croup be conducted on gen- 
eral principles. When children are subject to short, mild 
croupy turns, it may suffice to put one thickness of wet cloth, 
cool or warm, around the neck, and have this covered with 
two or three thicknesses of dry soft flannel. But when the 
recuperative work promises to be protracted, this dressing 
had better be superseded by the one above named. 

In my Philosophy of Human Life, I give a case of croup 

(233) 



234 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

in a little son of R. E. Gillett of Oberlin, which was of great 
length and most distressing aspect, and in the progress of 
which, toward its close, there were three separate distinct 
spells of — to human appearance — entire suspension of all 
signs of life. The child had a good recovery, and is now an 
esteemed young man, with a little family of his own. This 
was the hardest and most alarming case of croup that I had 
ever treated Orthopathically. It, has been my good fortune 
never to lose a case under that treatment. In the work to 
which I have alluded, a number of cases are recorded of dis- 
eases of different kinds that proceeded to great extremity 
and recovered, with extended remarks explanatory of their 
nature. 

Dysentery. 

When there is great soreness in the lower part of the 
bowels, with a harassing tenesmus, let small injections of 
starch, about the consistence of cream, be thrown into the 
rectum immediately after each stool, or as often as may ap. 
pear to be advantageous. On account of the irritable state 
of the bowels, caution must be exercised in the use of cold 
drinks ; in other respects, let the treatment of dysentery be 
similar to that for fevers in general. 



Choleea. 

Cholera, like all other diseases, should be treated on ra- 
tional scientific principles, as far as these can be traced and 
settled, for empiricism, after having " boxed the compass " to 
find an artificial cure for it, has left it enveloped in more dark- 
ness and perplexity than naturally pertains to it. 

My prescribed limits for this work preclude an extended 
disquisition of this subject, but I offer for consideration the 



PHYSICAL LEGEXERACY. 235 

following Orthopathic axioms applicable to cholera, as to 
any and all diseases : 

Axiom 1, — A sound, highly endowed constitution can not be 
broken down suddenly, or within the compass of a few years, 
by any known morbific agencies, so as to exhibit a well de- 
fined set of phenomena that would be recognized as small- 
pox, measles, typhus fever, cholera, or any other kind of 
functional derangement that has obtained a special nosolog- 
ical arrangement and name. 

Such a constitution might be destroyed suddenly, or per- 
manently maimed or crippled, but it could not be depressed 
in its general tone and action so that — for example — small-pox 
virus in any quantity or degree of virulence could so effect 
it that it would manifest a regular train of small-pox symp- 
toms. 

Axiom 2. — The human system can never be so broken 
down, damaged, or depressed in its energies and actions — as a 
general rule — that it, or any part of it, shall take on wrong or 
subversive action ; but, on the contrary, there will always re- 
main while life lingers, a fixed, unbroken, unsubdued, immuta- 
ble, upward tendency that only needs accession of power 
and a free open field to enable it to restore a natural healthy 
condition. 

Axiom 3, — When any part of the human system is reduced 
to a complaining point, where it is obliged to take on deranged 
action, the immediate occasion of the derangement is always 
debility, absolute or relative. 

Axiom 4. — As disease, including cholera, is not an indi- 
vidual substantive or positive entity warring against life, 
but is simply a modification of its normal condition, it must 
of necessity be subject to the laws, general and special, that 
govern healthy action, or all vital action. 



236 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 



Bearing these axioms in mind, we will pass to a brief con- 
sideration of the 



Treatment of Cholera. 

The cholera department, or that portion of the body immedi- 
ately concerned in the cholera phenomenal manifestation, con- 
sists of the capillary blood-vessels of the lower portion of the 
bowels, beyond the boundary of the lacteal system of vessels 
contained in the primce vice, or first passages, and the nerves that 
preside over these capillaries. The source of difficulty is in 
these presiding nerves. For the while they are bankrupt in 
vital funds, and are obliged to suspend payment, or are unable 
to honor the drafts made upon them as they have been accus- 
tomed to do. In consequence of a failure to receive their usual 
allotment of power, the capillary vessels become relaxed in their 
extremities — millions on millions of them — that open on 
the inner surface of the intestines, and strain off or exhale 
the thinner portion of the blood in large quantity. This is 
in effect a bleeding, a reduction of the volume of blood, and 
endangers life in the same way that a large bleeding from the 
bowels would. The sudden and extensive abstraction of the 
vital fluid seriously affects the whole brain, and thereby 
threatens destruction to life by disarranging some of the es- 
sential organs. The proper remedy consists in placing the 
body in a horizontal position, to favor the circulation of the 
blood through the brain ; in closely and thoroughly envel- 
oping the body in flannel, and in keeping the temperature of 
the air of the room a little elevated — to about 70 or 75 de- 
grees. The object of the flannel and gentle warmth is to 
maintain a steady and uniform action in the cuticular vessels 
on the surface of the body, so as to favor the action of the 
intestinal capillaries ; for the connection between the two sets 
of vessels is very close and intimate. The above conditions 
should be scrupulously adhered to, until the enfeebled nerves 



FETS1CAL DEGENERACY. 237 



are recruited and the danger past. Thirst will be distressing 
in consequence of the thinning of the blood, but the drinking 
of water will greatly aggravate the alvine dejections, and must 
be persistently refrained from. A little cool water may be 
used in gargling the mouth, and a little of it held in the 
mouth a portion of the time, but should not be swallowed. 
A striking peculiarity of the cholera, and its great charac- 
teristic, consists in the " whey-colored " stools. The vitiated 
secretion from the inner surface of the bowels possesses a 
strong and marvelous property of transmuting whatever it 
finds in its way, with astonishing rapidity, into the whey-col- 
ored fluid. I knew a case of chronic cholera that continued 
for six weeks without abatement. There were two and three 
alvine discharges during twenty-four hours without pain, in- 
variably a purely simple, limped, whey-colored liquid, and for 
two or three weeks there were no other visible or sensible 
tokens of difficulty, except a constant and very disquieting 
thirst. The man kept about his ordinary business, feeling as 
well as usual, and was only anxious and careful with respect 
to himself from the extraordinary aspect of the case. His 
appetite continued unimpaired, and he indulged moderately 
in the use of suitable food. At first, there was no apparent 
loss of flesh, but toward the close cf the renovating process, 
there was an evident change of countenance and waning of 
flesh. A return to a natural state of the bowels was grad- 
ual ; the first indication of improvement was change of color 
in the discharges, and then in their consistence. From the 
uncomfortable thirst throughout the affection, the inducement 
to drink was urgent, but if it was indulged in beyond a very 
small quantity at a time, a gurgling sound was soon perceived 
issuing from the bowels, followed immediately by a free 
passage. The subject of this singular affection had a short 
but sharp turn of the acute cholera three or four weeks before 
the accession of the chronic form of it, and therefore the 
vital economy had time to fortify somewhat the cerebral text- 



238 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

ure, and, in general, to so arrange the vital operations, that the 
local recuperative work could be conducted through a pro- 
tiacted period without seriously embarrassing other tissues of 
organs. This case showed clearly, to my mind, that the 
cholera department proper is of limited extent, and does 
not include the first passages, as the nutritive function was 
not directly sensibly infringed. 

When cholera prevails extensively, persons will frequently 
drop very low with it, sometimes into the collapsed state, and 
occasionally even below that, and recover. The chance of 
recovery from an apparently hopeless extremity of vital 
condition is greater when there has been the least done by 
way of medication or internal stimulation. Dr. Hawthorn, 
in his treatise on Epidemic Cholera, after recommending much 
and varied heroic treatment for the prevention of collapse, 
admits that patients do sometimes come up after having 
reached that stage, but says, " Almost all the recoveries from 
collapse I have ever witnessed, were of persons who refused 
to take any medicine whatever, and who recovered through 
the vis medicatrix naturae— healing power of Nature." The facts 
here disclosed — an unpremeditated and undesigned compli- 
ment to natural cure — accords well with similar facts within my 
observation. I have many times seen persons recover from 
depths of vital depression under Orthopathic treatment, the 
like of which I have seldom witnessed in heroic Heteropathic 
practice. 

In closing my remarks on cholera, I will repeat that too 
much stress can not be laid on the practice recommended of 
having the body placed and steadily maintained in a horizon- 
tal position, covered with flannel, from the first serious 
outbreak of the disorder until it has passed its crisis. Bed- 
pans or other conveniences should be put in requisition to 
avoid the necessity of disturbing this arrangement. As the 
cholera complaint is more under the depressing influence of 
mental agitation than almost any other derangement to which 



PHYSICAL DEGEXERACY. 239 

the human system is liable, it might be well for individuals 
who are not firmly established on an Orthopathic basis, to be 
plied with pungent aromatic stimulants that play smartly 
upon the sensibility, without making heavy drafts upon any 
important vital domain, to suffice to keep them from being 
frightened into a spell of the cholera, when there is no neces- 
sity of their having one. 

Cleanliness and sobriety, always cardinal virtues, and 
imperative duties, are peculiar necessities in seasons of 
cholera. 

Broths and Scalds. 

Dust on to the burnt surfaces liberally of wheat flour, and 
cover with cotton batting. The cotton may be removed 
gradually as the febrile excitement subsides ; but the crust 
formed by the flour should be permitted to adhere to the sur- 
face until it is thrown off by a healing process. The patho- 
logical philosophy of this treatment is, that the excitement 
of the burnt surfaces needs to be abated gradually, that the 
scanty remnant of vitality of the vessels concerned may not 
be overpowered by a sudden depression of temperature. On 
the same principle, frozen parts should first be covered with 
snow or powdered ice, and let their temperature be raised 
gradually. Sores that remain from burns and scalds, and 
frost, need the same kind of treatment that sores from 
other causes do, under similar circumstances of vital condi- 
tion. 

And all that any sore needs, as a local application, is a mild, 
smooth, soft covering that shall simulate as near as practica- 
ble the qualities of the true skin, to afford protection to the ten- 
der denuded surface, and guard it against the presence and 
action of the atmosphere. Lint, or old soft linen cloth, 
thinly spread ^ith simple cerate, made by melting olive oil 
or lard with beeswax to the consistence of tallow, or tallow 



240 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

itself, makes a good dressing. The healing is to be done by 
the internal economy of life, and can be done by nothing 
else, and will progress, just in proportion to the vital ability 
of the repairing machinery of the affected parts. If the 
ability is ample, the healing will be rapid ; if it is slender, the 
healing will be slow and fitful. Not unfrequently, sores from 
scalds and burns are very tardy and irregular in their pro- 
gress toward soundness. For one while, they manifest an 
encouraging disposition to heal, and then for a season 
scarcely hold their own, if they do not fall back some. 
And yet the vessels concerned in the recuperative work are 
doing the very best they can, under existing circumstances, 
at all times. 

When there is a good degree of ralliable power in store, 
indolent ulcers may be compelled to heal up sooner than they 
would do if left to themselves. I once made an old phag- 
edenic ulcer on the thigh of a stout man, with edges as firm as 
sole leather, close up in a few days with a liberal use of pow- 
dered blue vitriol. I afterward learned, however, that it 
would have been better for the general health of the man to 
have left the ulcer to take its own course. When sores are 
of long standing, great care should be taken of the general 
health, and every thing done to favor the healing of the sores 
that can be done to advantage. Sores on the extremities 
may often be benefited by attention to position, keeping the 
members in a position to favor the return of upward-bound 
fluids, by giving them the benefit of the force of gravitation. 
On the lower extremities, when there is a tendency of the 
limbs to swell, great assistance may be derived from a well- 
fitting laced stocking, or from nicely adjusted bandages of 
soft elastic cloth. It is sometimes surprising to see how 
rapidly old sores and eruptions of the most inveterate kind 
will heal up when they "get ready," under every kind of 
treatment, and no treatment at all This has given occasion 
to the celebration of every description of salve and nostrum 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 241 



for remarkable healing and strengthening virtue. There are 
two kinds of sores that require the interposition of art for 
aid toward their cure, syphilis and scabies. These dire calam- 
ities are maintained by peculiar tenacious and voracious ani- 
malculee. These must be destroyed before the sores can be 
healed ; and the destruction of these causes of disturbance is 
all that is required of art. And in scrofulous habits, where 
sores when once produced from any cause are slow to heal, 
much mischief is often done by continuing the use of viru- 
lent means beyond their necessity. 



Blood Pubifiebs. 

Millions of dollars are expended annually in the United 
States for so-called " blood purifiers. " Blood is a manufactured 
article and is always just as good as the bloo(J-makers can 
make. If they are healthy and vigorous, and are furnished 
with good material, they invariably make good blood. But 
if they are feeble and have bad material, it will be impos- 
sible for them to make good blood ; but still they will 
come as near to it as they can ; and it is the quintessence 
of folly to think of purifying impure blood by vile, impure 
material. 

Blood Letting. 

Nature dreads almost above any other injury that can be 
inflicted upon her domain a stab " under the fifth rib." It 
costs her a great deal to make a quart of blood — good, bad, or 
indifferent. It is her life ; she has nothing else to subsist 
upon. The extraction of any quantity of this life-sustaining 
material is so much loss to the vital economy, in her specie 
currency, for which no compensating consideration can be of- 
fered. It is alleged that in apoplexy bleeding is necessary to 
relieve the brain from compression by a congestion of the 
11 



242 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

blood-vessels. But the congestion does not arise from a gen- 
eral plethora of the blood-vessels ; at least, the general 
plethora is not the reason of it. A plethoric state of the 
blood-vessels is usually a concomitant of an apoplectic diathesis ; 
but debility is the occasion of the plethora ; and a more serious 
and threatening debility of the all-important plexus of capil- 
laries that constitutes the fibrous portion of the brain lays 
the foundation for the congested state of the large cerebral 
vessels. So much nervous energy is withdrawn from the 
large vessels to re-enforce the recuperating and fortifying 
power of the capillary system, that the former are obliged to 
fill up with blood and compress the brain. For the time being 
they have not power to maintain a free circulation of the 
blood through them. This congestion of the large vessels 
would occur as soon if there was but a small quantity of 
blood in the general circulation, as if there was a fullness of 
it. Indeed, local congestion would be more apt to occur where 
the vessels were partially filled, than where they were full 
enough to enable them to give a firm, steady beat. But facts 
are relied upon for rebutting this theory. And the main 
fact depended upon, which is a fact, is the apparent benefit 
derived from bleeding. This apparent good is produced on 
the same principle that all noxious agencies are instrumental 
in getting an apparent favorable response to their action ; 
which is by threatening to turn the ship over and thereby 
constraining the captain to remand some of the hands from 
the hold of the ship, where they are much needed for the pre- 
sent, on to the deck to get on more sail and steady the ship. 
Yital forces go where danger threatens the hardest. And a 
heavy bleeding makes a loud call for them ; not only by de- 
tracting seriously from the stock of expensively prepared sus- 
tenance but also by tending to embarrass every department of 
the vital operations by a sudden depletion in the mass of cir- 
culating fluid. But facts of a different character are showing, 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 243 

incontrovertibiy, the fallacy and unsoundness of the verdict 
formed by the above single fact of apparent good. The fact 
that bleeding, like other noxious agencies, tends to perpetuate 
and aggravate the very condition of the system which its use 
seems to benefit, is sufficient of itself to warrant a sentence 
of condemnation against it. But it has been proved by an 
experience to an unlimited extent, that it is safer and better 
to trust inflammation, apoplexy, and all other disorders of the 
system, without the use of the lancet than with it. There is 
but a small proportion of the intelligent experienced prac- 
titioners of the present day that make any dependence on 
venesection. 

In the early part of this century, The Boston Medical and 
Surgical Journal contained an obituary notice of Dr. Dan- 
forth, who had long been an eminent practitioner in Bos- 
ton, in which it is said that he seldom used active medicine, 
and more rarely caused a patient to be bled. With regard 
to the latter remedy, the notice states, " Though considered 
one of the most successful practitioners, he rarely caused a pa- 
tient to be bled. Probably for the last twenty years of his 
practice, he did not propose the use of this remedy in a single 
instance. And he maintained that the abstraction of the 
vital fluid diminished the power of overcoming the disease- 
On one occasion he was called to visit a number of persons 
who had been injured by the falling of a house -frame, and, 
on arriving, found another practitioner engaged in bleeding 
the men. c Doctor,' said the latter, ' I am doing your work 
for you.' ' Then said Dr. Danforth, pour 'the blood back into 
the veins of those men.' " 

There is no "disease "to be "overcome," no positive an- 
tagonism to be subdued, but there is debility to be recovered 
from, and bleeding is a grand aggravator of debility. 



244 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 



Help Nature. 

In the present degenerate state of poor suffering humanity, 
Art may interpose its kind offices and " help Nature " in a 
great variety of ways, without stabbing her at heart or thrust- 
ing her through with all manner of darts. Defective teeth 
should be filled and nicely fitted up, or removed. For a de- 
fective tooth costs more to keep it in a comfortable state than 
it is worth. Indurated glands that threaten to become can- 
cerous should be early removed. Nature has done the best 
she could under the long-continued opposition to her sanitary 
laws and regulations to keep these glands from getting into 
their present predicament, but could not succeed. And now, 
unless they are speedily removed, they will fall still lower in 
their vital condition, take on a vitiated, poisonous secretory 
action, and produce a sharp acrimonious fluid that will under- 
mine and destroy the whole vital fabric. 

The extremities of broken bones should be nicely adjusted 
to each other and kept in proper coaptation. Cut arteries 
should be tied, and bleedings generally suppressed. Felons 
or whitlows should be opened early and freely. And many 
such like things should be seasonably and faithfully attended 
to, as proper and salutary adjuncts to natural cure. I have 
heard lately of attempts being made to help Nature by the 
transmission of life force from healthy persons into feeble 
ones. Some individuals fancy that they have the gift of im- 
parting genuine vitality to invalids of peculiar temperament. 
And some are so strong in the faith of their ability to com- 
municate life to others, under some circumstances, that they 
affirm and probably really believe that they have, in some in- 
stances, performed instantaneous and thorough cures, not 
only by direct contact with the sick, but also through the 
medium of handkerchiefs sent to some distance. The life 
principle can not pass from one fiber to another in the same 



\ 



PHYSICAL DEGEXELAC7. 245 

person, where the fibers lie side by side with each other, from 
their origin in the brain to their termination in the extremi- 
ties, with nothing but the slightest membranous film be- 
tween them. 

My object in this division of this work has been rather to 
evolve the Orthopathic principle, and outline general rules 
of practice, than to give a minute detail of treatment. 



OHAPTEE XY. 

FINAL AND EFFECTUAL EEMEDY FOE MAN'S 
PHYSICAL DEGENEEACY. 

" Pbevention is better than cure." And prevention of 
man's physical degeneracy will be easy when the race is once 
restored to perfect soundness. But to reach that condition is 
the problem now to be solved. And for the solution of this 
problem, or for getting it in process of solution, dependence 
must be made principally upon childhood and youth ; for the 
Ethiopean will not change his skin, nor the leopard his spots. 
But every person of mature judgment, and who feels the im- 
portance of the subject, should contribute something toward 
the accomplishment of the grand desideratum. And yet no one 
with confirmed viscious habits of living should attempt to 
break up those habits and supersede them by good ones, with- 
out knowing what he is about ; otherwise, he will be sure to 
backslide and bring dishonor upon the cause. For the 
benefit of those who feel disposed to right themselves on the 
subject of diet, I will give them some of my experience in 
this matter. In the early part of my medical life, as I have 
elsewhere stated, I was led to believe that excitants of 
every description, the mild as well as the pungent and corro- 
sive, were more or less prejudicial to the human constitution, 
under all ordinary circumstances of either health or disease. 
And, as a professed disciple of Him who came to " save that 
which was lost," I felt it to be my duty to do what I could 
by example, as well as by prScept, to rescue my race from 
(246) 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 247 

its bondage to depraved habits, and particularly those that 
pertained to the physical system — as this sphere of duty lay 
more especially within my' province as a physician. I had 
never indulged freely in the use of strong drinks, and it was 
no cross forme to sign and keep a pledge of total abstinence 
from all intoxicating liquors. With tobacco it was otherwise. 
I had become its bond-slave, and it was not until I had made 
a number of ineffectual attempts to rid myself of the vile 
habit of its use, that I succeeded in obtaining a complete vic- 
tory over it. The giving up of coffee cost me a severe strug- 
gle, and for weeks and months after I had given it final leave 
of absence from the palatal field of relish in a liquid form, a 
sight of it on the table, and especially a fresh perfuming of 
the olfactory nervous expanse with its ambrosial fragrance, 
would excite within me a desire for a renewal of its exhila- 
rating power and effect. Tea gave me no trouble. This bev- 
erage did not take sufficient hold of my nervous excitability 
to attach me strongly to it. And if tea and coffee drinkers 
wish to know which of these substances injures them 
most, they have only to decide which of them touches their 
gustatory nerves the most to their liking. It is an excitation 
or exhilaration of the nervous influence which occasions the 
pleasurable feeling, and in the injury done to the nervous fila- 
ments and the waste of power consists the damage. In part- 
ing with condiments or spices, I not only suffered in my feel- 
ings from the absence of accustomed stimuli, but had to en- 
dure an inconvenient derangement of the bowels for months, 
in broken series. 

But, the turning my back upon the flesh-pots put my 
power of endurance to the severest test. I had subsisted 
very much on animal food, and was fond of fat, juicy 
meat. Abandoning the use of meat was about the last overt 
act of my dietetic reform. I had some time previously discon- 
tinued the use of butter, on account of a painful little eating 
sore in my mouth. I had long been satisfied that butter, es- 



248 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

pecially butter of some age, possessed a strong irritative qual- 
ity that predisposed the system to sores, eruptions, and in- 
flammatory affections. 

I was slow to believe that animal food was bad for the 
human system. On the contrary, I thought it was indispen- 
sable to the attainment of the best human fabrics, and a reali- 
zation of the highest forms of manhood. I withstood man- 
fully the pleadings of my good friend Dr. Alcott on the sub- 
ject, and became quite familiar with the pro-meat eating ar- 
guments — such as the Bible doctrine ; the superiority of flesh 
over vegetable matter for flesh and heat making purposes ; 
its advantage in supplying feeble digestive organs with a 
large amount of nutriment in small bulk — the multum in parvo 
quality ; being more readily digested ; my own convictions in 
dietetic experience, for I felt that I could not do without meat, 
and a good deal of it, etc. After a while my pro-meat eat- 
ing current of thought was arrested by a trivial circum- 
stance, and my mind brought to a more thorough and can- 
did investigation of all the facts and circumstances connected 
with an animal diet ; which resulted in a strong verdict 
against it, and a determination to quit it. I was feeding a 
couple of fatting .swine with fine bright corn ; and as I stood 
watching the process of mastication which they were per- 
forming upon it, the question arose in my mind, " How is this 
corn to be bettered for my use by being wrought into soft 
second-hand nutriment by these swine ? I know that the 
corn is now good for food ; exactly adapted to supply, in large 
proportion, both flesh and heat-making material ; and 
wherein will it be improved when it comes from the pork 
barrel instead of the meal barrel to be served up for human 
stomachs ?" This question wrought my conversion to vegeta- 
rianism. 

The Bible argument for flesh-eating is akin to that which 
favors the putting away of wives by giving them a writing of 
divorcement, " From the beginning," the Bible neither 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY, 249 

authorized the putting away of wives nor flesh eating. There 
are a large number of good vegetable substances that con- 
tain more than double the percentage of nutriment than any- 
kind of animal matter does. And some of the vegetable 
matters, such as rice, are digested more readily and in a 
shorter time than animal food. My experience in suffering 
from the absence of a few meals of flesh meat, instead of 
being an argument in favor of its use, was a very strong one 
against it. No one suffers from the substitution of one kind 
of good alimentary substance for another one of like char- 
acter. It is only when some kind of irritant that has been 
used for a long time, and has damaged important tissues, is 
rejected, that trouble is experienced from its absence. 

Meat diet tends strongly to produce and establish a ple- 
thoric and feverish diathesis in the system, which disposes 
to colds, febrile affections, biliary disturbances, apoplexy, 
epilepsy and palsy, congestion of the brain, liver, lungs, 
stomach and kidneys, and a host of other bodily derange- 
ments. 

After a full consideration of the pros and cons, my mind 
was made up for dispensing with the use of flesh meats for the 
balance of my earthly pilgrimage, and I have tasted none 
since. I was satisfied from a defective state of my physical 
system, its lack of general vital vigor or accommodating piin- 
ciple, my past experience in turning sharp corners, and from 
a full persuasion that my long and large use of animal food 
had left a heavy balance of uncanceled injuries to be ad- 
justed when Nature should be allowed an opportunity to 
make a full settlement of her difficulties in the absence of the 
enemy of vitality, that I should have a serious time of it be- 
fore the renovating work was well done up. 

I came square off at once from the flesh-pots in the month 
of July, 1838, and was fifty years old the following Novem- 
ber. While using a meat diet my average weight was two 
hundred pounds, with a full florid countenance. The first 
11* 



250 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

part of the reconstruction process consisted in a diversion of 
about one-half of the forces from the nutritive apparatus, 
and a somewhat smaller proportion of them from the gen- 
eral system of voluntary muscles, to aid directly and in- 
directly in the work of taking me to pieces ; or in taking up 
and carrying off useless and cumbersome matter. Of course, 
I lost weight and strength, and was pretty well bleached in 
the face. I was at first cut down to considerably less than 
three-quarters of my former weight ; but subsequently it was 
made up to just about three-quarters of the old meat-diet 
standard, and has never varied much since from the one 
hundred and., fifty pounds. Through the whole of the suc- 
ceeding winter, I was much troubled to keep comfortably 
warm when out of doors, owing to the calorific tissue of 
organs being under repair. After they were well recuperated, 
I could endure heat and cold much better than before. Dur- 
ing the first stage of the renovating work, my friends were 
unremitting in their endeavors to induce me to retrace my 
steps, and resume my former mode of living. " Why, don't 
you see" said they, " that you are going straight down to the 
grave ?'" " Oh, no. That was my condition and destination 
under a stimulating diet ; but I have been switched off 
from that line, and am now taking a circuitous rout to the 
terminus of life, and shall be a number of years longer in 
reaching it than if I had continued to move on with my for- 
mer straightforward and rapid career." The same friends, the 
survivors of them, now admit that I have been a gainer, so 
far as health and length of days are concerned, by abandon- 
ing a stimulant course of living. 

A little incident will show something of one advantage 
which I have gained by my vegetarianism. A few years 
after adopting my new mode of life, when my fleshly fabric 
had been well consolidated by a vegetable diet, I called on Dr. 
Joseph Tomlinson of Huntington, Conn., who had formerly 
been a pupil of mine — was some two years in my office. He 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 251 

asked me to go and see a patient with him at the head of 
a long hill, and inquired whether I would walk up. I told 
him I had r ather walk than ride. As we reached the place 
and he opened the gate for me, he said, " You don't puff and 
wheeze coming up a hill as you used to ; what is the reason 
of it ?" 

I told him there were two very good reasons for it. 
One was that I had not so much superfluous matter, by fifty 
pounds, to lug up hill as I formerly had. And the second 
reason was, that I had better muscle for taking up what 
there was left of me than I formerly had. My treatment of 
myself at every stage, and under every form of the renovat- 
ing processes through which I was passed, was in strict ac- 
cord with my Orthopathic principles. I had unbounded con- 
fidence in the vital economy's administration, and never at- 
tempted to control any of her movements otherwise than by 
carefully observing her indications and fulfilling them to the 
best of my knowledge and ability, I fed her with food con- 
venient for her, such as the necessities of the system de- 
manded, and there was digestive and assimilatory ability to 
use advantageously. When the heat-makers were feeble, and 
unable to keep " the house I live in" comfortably warm, I 
" helped Nature " by artificial means. But in every thing that 
related directly to vital action, " non-intervention" was my 
rule. 

I could at any time have relieved myself of present 
trouble, by calling in to my aid the foe or foes that had pro- 
duced it. Coffee would have restored the quiet that had 
been disturbed by its rejection. Tobacco would have relieved 
me at once of the tobacco blues. Black pepper, allspice, cin- 
namon, cloves, ginger, mustard, horseradish, etc. etc., would 
have smoothed over very nicely, for the time being, my bowel 
difficulty. And some good roast beef and fried chicken, 
would have dispelled the dismal gloom which they had been 
instrumental in laying a foundation for. But I preferred to 



252 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

let them go and sin no more, lest worse consequences should 
come upon me. The change in my dietetic habits wrought 
great beneficial change in every department of my physical 
system. Organs were relieved of cumbrous and oppressive 
matter, and put in a better condition for service. Many dif- 
ficulties that had been frequent and troublesome visitors 
passed me by entirely, or made but light, short, and distant 
calls. Common colds, that had always been very common 
with me under the old regimen, took my disuse of a 
meat diet in high dudgeon, and stood aloof from me. The 
pulmonic department of my system is so constitutionally de- 
fective that no mode of living would be likely to free me al- 
together from liability to occasional winding-up spells in these 
organs. 

Different individuals, in passing through a thorough reno- 
vating process, would be differently affected. Some would 
suffer more and longer than I did ; while others would suffer 
much less. In every instance, the suffering would be graded 
with great exactness to the nature and necessities of the 
case. Some lean persons would gain flesh, and all corpulent 
ones would lose much, if not all, of their obesity. In all cases 
it is safe to stop short, and in toto, in sinning against soul or 
body, if the mind is suitably informed and confiding. It 
should be generally known that in the physical system the 
tendency is always to health and longevity, proportioned to 
free reserve power that can be made available for the pro- 
motion of the health tendency. It should also be known 
that it is easier in the long run, and far more profitable, to 
abstain in toto from wrong doing, than it is to attempt to 
maintain a graded moderate use of, or indulgence in, trans- 
gression of law. But the most and best that can be cal- 
. culated upon from the general public of confirmed violators 
of the laws of life is, that they may become so well informed 
on the subject of human physical degeneracy, and the neces- 
sity of its being remedied, that they will not only refrain 



TRY SIC AL DEGEXERACY. 253 

from outward opposition to efforts that are being made for 
the physiological regeneration of the world, but throw the 
weight of their influence, aside from their practice, in favor 
of them. 

And physiological reformers have reason to thank God 
and take courage, and press forward in the very arduous 
and stupendous work before them. The success that has 
hitherto attended the efforts of individuals, associations, 
hygienic institutions, and educational establishments, in the 
improvement of the physical condition of the individuals im- 
mediately concerned therein, is a sure presage that the final 
and complete restoration of the race to bodily soundness is 
feasible ; and the law of progress justifies the conclusion that 
the happy event is a moral certainty. 

The result of the experiment so auspiciously in progress 
by Dr. Dio Lewis in the education and training of girls, will 
show that the physical education of youth may be reduced 
to a very simple and successful science. Boys and girls 
should be educated together, and early and effectively in- 
structed in relation to their sexuality. They should come to 
understand why they were created male and female, and 
acquire such perfect control of themselves that they can go 
through with the whole range of gambol, fun, and frolic per- 
taining to childhood and youth without having the thought 
occur to them that they differ in sex. 

The ends to be answered in the education of youth, in the 
transit to a perfect state of society, may be comprised in two 
divisions — positive and negative. Things to be done, and 
things to be avoided. 

Positive Exds. 

The prime object to be steadily aimed at in devising ways 
and means for remedying our physical degeneracy, is to secure 
sound bodies ; for this will be the most direct and, indeed, 



254 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

only effectual way of securing sound minds. The mode and 
means of educating and training the race to physical sound- 
ness would be of comparatively easy apprehension and ap- 
plication, but for the all-pervading and time -honored phan- 
tom of " original sin." 

Any attempt to perfect humanity, in body or mind, is sure 
to meet with opposition based on this fabulous but hitherto 
impassable barrier to crowning efforts for man's complete 
emancipation from wrong-doing and bodily infirmities. All 
the actual force of obstacle to a full compliance with the 
reasonable requirement, " Be ye perfect, as your Father in 
heaven is perfect," which has come down to us from 
" Adam's fall," consists in disinclination — voluntary and 
wicked disinclination. 

Communities are perfectly voluntary in supporting their 
ponderous, onerous, and ruinous modes of life, in style of liv- 
ing as pertaining to dress, buildings, furniture, equipage, etc, ; 
and their expensive and pernicious dietetic habits ; all of 
which not only tend to debase, distort and cripple the whole 
being, but also to keep society in such a constant, giddy, 
whirl of feverish excitement in pursuit of sordid gains where- 
with to support their unrighteous habits, that they have no 
time for sober reflection, through which to ascertain their 
true wretched condition and its remedy. And it is per- 
fectly optional with communities to arrest this wild, un- 
natural, irrational, anti-Christian and demoniacal state of 
things ; and to substitute in its stead a calm, natural, ra- 
tional, Christian, and healthful order of events. This will 
shortly be done. A few leading minds, male and female, 
will ere long move in this matter, and salutary changes will 
speedily follow. 

Then ministers of the Gospel will not tell the people of 
their charge, as Mr, Beecher did his, last Sabbath, that the 
millennial state of the church is yet " a great way off." On 



PHYSICAL DEGEXERACY. 255 

tlie contrary, they will assure them, with much earnestness 
and positiveness, that it is " nigh, even at the doors." 

Down three or four generations from this, in the 
advancing column of millennial pioneers, babes will im- 
bibe and be nourished by the " sincere milk " of full de- 
veloped, beautifully proportioned, sound, and healthy moth- 
ers. And when their young, vigorous, physical corpora- 
tions are sufficiently matured and prepared for other forms 
of nourishment, their after supply of material for the 
growth and establishment of their bodies in the symmetry 
and beauty of perfected man and womanhood, will be de- 
rived directly from the ample storehouse of choice and indefi- 
nitely varied products of bountiful Mother Earth, without hav- 
ing them previously worked over into the loathsome carcasses 
of filthy swine, or other four-footed beasts and creeping 
things. 

When this line of reconstructive policy is entered on, there 
will be no difficulty in deciding what special methods and 
means shall be adopted and used to answer the positive ends 
of education for youth. " Then shall we know, if we follow 
on to know the Lord." 

" Social science " is inquiring how the ills of human life 
can be abated. There is one way, and but one way in which 
it can be done effectually. There must be " first a willing 
mind." This must grasp firmly, and hold on unflinchingly, 
to its living head ; from which alone can be derived the uni- 
versal panacea. The individual branches that draw their 
vitalizing nourishment from the true vine, their common 
source of supply, must open a free communication between 
each other and their common fountain of life. In this frater- 
nizing transaction, there must be no reservation — no keeping 
back a "part of the price." There must be nothing to ob- 
struct a free circulation of the warm, gushing sympathy, as it 
flows back and forth from the vine through the branches. 
Nothing to diminish the aggregate of mental effort that strict 



256 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

unity would produce in devising ways and means for the pro- 
motion of the comfort, health, and happiness of the brother- 
hood. And nothing to detract from the sum total of manual 
labor, that a close and intimate union would bring into the 
field for the common benefit. " Freely ye have received, 
freely give." 

This is the appointed "constitutional* method of reme- 
dying human degeneracy; and no other method can ever 
be successful. And, reader, what better method can you 
desire than this ? Would you prefer a shorter course, one 
through which you could reach the Father's great heart of 
love by some mental process, and satiate your depraved sen- 
sibility with a little shallow, sentimental gratification, while 
the whole head was sick and the whole heart was faint? 
You must first present your " body a living sacrifice, holy " — 
without blemish— " acceptable unto God, which is your rea- 
sonable service." Then, and as the process of physical 
regeneration advances, you may, through non-conformity to 
the world, get a transformation by the renewing of your 
mind, by which you can " prove what is that good, and ac- 
ceptable, and perfect will of God." 



Negative Ends. 

The negative ends to be answered in the education of youth 
in order to free the world from bondage to sin ; or the most 
prominent and overshadowing evils that are to be lopped off 
and avoided, may be arranged under three heads: Covet- 
ousness, Intemperance, and Licentiousness. 



This is the head and front of all offending. Coveting for- 
bidden indulgence was the first act of transgression, and it 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 257 

" brought death into the world and all our woe." Wrong con- 
sists in deviation from the erect perpendicular line of moral 
obligation. The least departure from this standard of recti- 
tude opens the flood-gate to all manner of evil. An effectual 
cure foi the evil of covetousness is to be found only in a 
strict observance of the second great command, " Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself/' in accordance with its very ob- 
vious import. 

This command is not an arbitrary, oppressive enact- 
ment, but is founded in true benevolence. It constitutes 
a rule of duty which, if faithfully observed, will promote the 
highest happiness of all concerned therein. A brotherhood 
encircle d by the golden cord of love, securely attached to the 
great heart and fountain of love — and there is no cord of 
love that has not such an attachment — can not but be a 
happy community. Each member feels that in an important 
sense he is his brother's keeper. It is a mutual insurance 
association, where interest is identical ; and the instinctive, 
undying desire for happiness prompts them — as they learn 
the true source of happiness, and realize and appreciate its 
blessed fruits — to unite their efforts with divine economy for 
the promotion of the general good. There is individual en- 
terprise and emulation ; but it is all in strict subordination to 
the general weal. 

Intemperance. 

The only effectual remedy for this evil is to dry up its 
source. Let " touch not, taste not, handle not," be the ever 
ready and persistent motto when a cup is offered containing 
a particle of alcohol in any shape. Nothing short of this 
point should be aimed at by the American Temperance 
Union. And all friends of Temperance should rally without 
delay, and throw the whole weight of their influence in sup- 
port of the effort that is being made by the Eev. Dr. Marsh, 



258 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

the Apostle of Temperance, to check and turn back the 
mighty tide of death and destruction which the arch Apos- 
tate has so adroitly set in motion in this land, and which will 
assuredly overwhelm us, if it is not stayed — the use of fer- 
mented wine from grapes and other small fruits. 

Licentiousness. 

Here, again, we must go back to first principles to get an 
effectual remedy for a tremendous evil, with which the Devil 
is scourging our race. God " created male and female " for 
the express and sole purpose of propagating the species. 
And if the human species had kept themselves within this 
divine purpose, the evil for which we are now seeking a rem- 
edy would have had no existence. Within appropriate use 
of the procreative faculty, in a general normal state of the 
body, man would find no difficulty in maintaining pure and 
perfect continence at all times, and at the same time re- 
main in full possession of ready ability for the discharge of 
marital duty. 

And in respect to the female, she would not only be 
able to maintain a general easy continence, but would 
feel a natural and most abhorrent repugnance to sexual 
communion, except for the single purpose of conception, 
when the genital system was in a condition to participate 
in that act, which would be indicated by unmistakable phe- 
nomena. 

And in a perfect state of society, arrangements will be made 
to have the feminine call for sexual intercourse, promptly 
and duly honored. I have heard of only two reasons that 
have been urged for an abnormal use of venery. One is to 
multiply and enhance connubial pleasure. And the other, 
on the part of the male, to maintain a state of manhood or 
virility. 

It is a sufficient answer to the first assigned r.eason to 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 259 

say, that in a healthy state of society, abundant enjoyment 
may be derived from various sources of a social and intel- 
lectual nature, more rational, elevated, permanent and satis- 
factory, than can be elicited from transient, impure sexual 
connection. 

The other reason, and the one which is generally given 
and depended upon for a defense of the common legalized 
practice of sexual commerce, that a moderate indulgence in 
abnormal sexual intercourse is essential to a realization of 
the highest form of manhood, has its foundation in a misap- 
prehension of the relation which the genital system of organs 
holds to the body in general with respect to the law of 
exercise. 

The animal economy has a general rule, of which the 
one laid down by the Apostle Paul was but a counterpart, 
that a member that does not work shall not eat ; shall not 
be fed to the full, and consequently must become more or less 
emaciated and feeble. If the right arm performs its regular 
round of duty, it will receive a corresponding supply of nutri- 
ment, and be kept in a sound and vigorous state ; while the 
left arm, gloved and held in a state of indolence, will be scant- 
ily fed and wax flabby and feeble. The reproductive organs 
are an exception to this general law of the animal economy. 
They not only retain their virile vigor in full proportion with 
the general tone of the system of which they form a com- 
ponent part by exemption from use, but sustain an actual 
loss by every act of coition, whether it is legitimate 01 
spurious. 

In the wonderful and mysterious process by which, under 
the joint action of a compound sex, a germ is started into 
life and form to be developed into a full grown organism, the 
procreative faculty is obliged to sacrifice no inconsiderable 
portion of its highest vitality ; far beyond and more exhaust- 
ive in its effect upon the particular tissue of organs concerned 
therein, than is required of or experienced by other depart- 



260 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

menis of labor in the performance of their ordinary duties. 
But doubtless this portion of the corporate body has, in a 
sound state of the corporation, a margin of sustaining energy 
over and above its present necessities ; sufficient to restore 
losses that are incurred in legitimate use in consonance with 
original design. Beyond this divinely instituted boundary, 
expenditure of vital properties exceeds the income, and for the 
supply of this deficiency, no provision has been made. And 
although the loss may be inappreciable in good constitutions 
where forbidden indulgence is temperate, yet, like the letting 
out of water, it is opening a door to a precipitous and awful 
declivity, where uncontrollable lust, like the fires of the 
nether world, consumes whatever is lovely and of good re- 
port. 

A close parallel, in a number of important particulars, may 
be drawn between intemperance and fierce incontinence. Both 
have their foundation in physical depravity, which has been 
induced by violation of physical law ; and both are, therefore, 
physical vices which no will power can remove directly, any 
more than it can remove other bodily defects and infirmities. 
To will, may be present ; but to do, is absent. And the 
period is probably past when grace will interfere to work a 
miraculous cure. Careful observation will show that the vio- 
lations of physiological law are now left to be expiated unvi- 
cariously. 

Every erring mortal — and no man, as yet, liveth and sin- 
neth not — should live near the throne of grace, and get 
what divine aid he can to relieve him of any ills to which 
violations of law may be subjecting him; and he may be 
sure of getting full as much assistance as his faith in God's 
ability and willingness to help will warrant. But the most 
promising method of ridding ourselves of evils that are now 
our inheritance, as well as of avoiding future evils, is to -study 
carefully and observe strictly the laws of life. Intemperance 
and incontinence are alike in this, that they are both more or 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 261 

less remittent in their exacerbations. The remissions occur 
on this principle : Good feeling in any department of the sys- 
tem flows directly from full-toned sensibility in that depart- 
ment; and disquietude and bad feeling from its lack of sus- 
taining vigor. When the vital barometer is low, an inexpres- 
sible hankering — inexpressible by any signs of ideas known 
to the English language — for means of relief impels the poor 
victim to clutch it wherever he can find it. And the means 
which has produced the disease, is the specific thing for its 
temporary cure : Similia simiUlns curantur. The excitement of 
the occasion, by rum or venery — when there are ralliable 
forces to be drawn forth for the purpose — gives momentary 
relief in either case. When either tissue of organs that has 
been broken down by rum or venery succeeds in getting tem- 
porarily recruited in its vital condition, the morbid desire for 
the accustomed means of relief is for the while very much 
abated. 

The alcoholic intemperate man will sometimes tolerate 
an abstinence from the means of his sore degradation for 
months, with a good degree of fortitude ; and then plunge 
headlong into the gulf of infamy. So it is with the incon- 
tinent intemperate man. Both tend alike toward a cataract 
of ruin from which neither rank, fortune, talents, nor 
position, affords any security. Fierce and vile incontinence 
has dragged its victims from the pulpit and polluted the 
ermine. 

Incontinence in women that sustain the relation of 
mother is to be deplored, on account of its baneful effect 
on both parent and offspring. The deteriorating process is 
the same with women that it is with men. And there are 
degrees of it in women as there are- in men. Some women 
are entirely self-possessed with regard to their sexual habits ; 
while on the other extreme, some females are reduced to the 
wretched condition which the doctors call furor liter inns, or 
nymphomania — uterine madness ; characterized by excessive 



262 TEE TREE OF LIFE. 

and violent desire for coition. It must be obvious to any 
considerate mind that the only effectual remedy for the wide- 
spread desolating evils of licentiousness is a thorough recon- 
struction of society in regard to sexuality ; and give " male 
and female " no other function to perform than to "Be fruit- 
ful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." But to recon- 
struct, transmute, and make all things new, in the above par- 
ticular, against confirmed habit of opinion and practice, 
will require time, patience, and wise and judicious manage- 
ment. 

While the great transforming work is in progress, special 
pains must be taken to so adjust the old order of things with 
the changes that are peremptorily required, as not to occasion 
unnecessary jostling, outbreak, or disorder. As a first step 
with regard to youth, it will be well to have the sexes ed- 
ucated together. And yet to throw hot-blooded youth of 
both sexes into juxtaposition for educational purposes, with 
their present depraved proclivities, without vigilant and rigid 
surveillance, would be as irrational as to kindle fires around an 
open powder magazine in the heart of a populous city. And 
to remodel and regulate sexual commerce in established mar- 
ried life, so as to have it conform to correct foundation prin- 
ciple, will be a nice and delicate matter. " Present distress " 
will plead hard for indulgence ; and, while passing through 
the first stages of reform, no better directions can be given 
for the regulation of conjugal intercourse than is contained 
in the seventh chapter of the First of Corinthians. God 
will "lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the 
plummet." He will straighten all crooked ways ; but he will 
be patient and long suffering in doing it. 

If the young children of this land, North and South, from 
every grade of caste, of every complexion and nationality, 
were placed on a Pitcairn Island, under the sole superintend- 
ence of an Adam Smith, a converted sailor, they would grow 
up directly into a beautiful Christian community, fearers and 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 263 

lovers of God, and haters of covetousness. They would love 
each other, with pure hearts, fervently. They would be tem- 
perate in all things, and spotlessly chaste in all their deport- 
ment. They would be well formed and healthy in their own 
persons ; and lay a broad foundation for entire soundness of 
constitution and vigor of health to be perfected in after gen- 
erations — "the corruption of their whole nature, which is 
commonly called original sin," to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 

No lack of estimates have been made to prove that but a 
few centuries would be required to cover this earth so densely 
with inhabitants that there would not be space left for them 
to move in, under a steady course of natural population, if 
there were no sweeping diseases or desolating wars to thin 
them off. But I have never known of an attempt being 
made to compute the ability of the Almighty to create a new 
earth as occasion might require, for the reception of the sur- 
plus population of this earth. 

It has occurred to me that it might not be difficult for 
the Creator of worlds to fit up a neat, commodious planet 
once in a few centuries for the residence of the inhabitants 
of this planet, who had satisfactorily finished their probation 
and mission here, after a sojourn of eight hundred or a thou- 
sand years ; to be translated as Enoch and Elisha were, and 
transformed or semi-glorified, by dropping oif their nutritive 
apparatus and their sexual organization, and taking on a 
higher and more refined form of existence, as a medium 
through which to pass to the celestial regions, at the final 
winding up of earth's career. I suppose that something 
like this method of disposing of the Adamic race would have 
been pursued, if there had been no transgression of law. 
And when the race stops sinning the primitive state of things 
will be restored, and there will be no more death. But be 
this as it may, we are now on the earth under a standing injunc- 
tion to "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." 



264 TE£ TREE OF LIFE. 

If we are obedient to this injunction, in accordance with, the 
design and will of our heavenly Father, he will see that we 
and our posterity shall have room to move in, and sustenance 
for our support. " Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt 
thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

AN ALLEGOEY. 

Some of my readers may think that I am fond of taking 
flights into the airy region of fancy. Well, I confess to a 
good deal of satisfaction in occasionally forgetting the things 
that are behind, and of looking forward to the " good time 
coming." And if my courteous and patient reader pleases, I 
will ask him to come into Oberlin with me, and take a tele- 
scopic view of her glorious future, and compare it with her 
present condition. I invite you into Oberlin to make this 
comparison for two reasons. One is, that Oberlin is, in some 
respects, a model community. There is here more of the 
religious element diffused in the society, in proportion to the 
population, than can be found in any other community in this 
or any other land of its size. Not a Christianity of a purer 
quality, or of a deeper-toned basilar vitality, than can be 
found elsewhere ; but a larger quantity of common Chris- 
tianity. 

A much larger proportion of the inhabitants of the 
place are good common Christians than can be found in any 
other place. This gives us great advantage in conducting 
our secular affairs. There is a decided preponderance in fa- 
vor of good order. Rowdyism can be suppressed at its out- 
break ; tippling houses, gambling, and all irregularities 
can be easily kept at bay. On account, too, of a large bal- 
ance of Christian influence, Oberlin can fearlessly respect the 
rights of the colored man, and admit him to an equality of 
12 (265) 



266 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

social, religious, and educational privileges. She can educate 
young men and young women together to great advantage, 
with strict propriety and perfect security. If some com- 
munities were to attempt this kind of affiliation of the sexes, 
it might be at much hazard. Religious and social privileges 
must, of course, be much enhanced by the wide prevalence of 
the Christian element. 

My other reason for selecting Oberlin as an observatory 
from whence to get an ideal comparative view of the present 
and future state of things is, that we pride ourselves on being 
" independent thinkers; on educating independent thinkers ; 
and upon encouraging independent thinking." 

Now let us take our prospective glasses and throw our 
vision forward through the vista of six generations, and take 
a view of the Oberlinean " Paradise Regained." Our annota- 
tions must be brief, for to go into detail on the field of 
grandeur and beauty opening before us would very far sur- 
pass the allotted limits of this work. To get a general idea 
of the personal appearance and habits of the people of New 
Oberlin, with a perception also of something of their moral, 
social, political, and physical condition, turn to the thirty-fifth 
page of this book and read the fancy sketch that is there 
given of some of the traits of character, modes of life, and 
general prosperity, that will pertain to and characterize the 
people at large of the millennial period. After perusing that 
imperfect ideal sketch of future blessedness, you may put 
your imagination upon the wing and let it take its loftiest 
flight and make its widest range, and it can not bring to you 
an exaggerated picture of the glorious future of our race. 
" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into 
the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for 
them that love him." 

Your imaginative perception of the state of things 
in the renovated world may be very different from what will 
prove to be the reality ; but the actual will far surpass the ideal 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 267 

in every substantial and desirable particular. But I take espe- 
cial pleasure in contemplating the nobility of our common 
nature as it is rounded out in complete development of cor- 
poral structure and endowment. Its majestic, beautiful, 
and lovely aspect ; its noble and lofty bearing ; its elegant, 
refined manners ; in short, its perfect fitness for the resi- 
dence of a pure spirit, to be a meet companion for other 
spirits, and to hold communion, singly and socially, with the 
divine Trinity of Spirit. And the universality of this glo- 
rious beatific state greatly enhances its blessedness — there 
being no room for more blessing. " Herein is my Father 
glorified." 

The government of the people is a theo-democracy. 
Every individual has his place and falls into it and performs 
its appropriate duties, as naturally as the planets move in 
their spheres. Self-possession is a prominent characteristic 
of this happy people. They have the most facile control of 
their appetites, propensities, and passions. All of the ten- 
dencies of their complex nature are strongly convergent to- 
ward the central point of holiness. 

Young children take to ways of righteousness as naturally 
as young ducks take to water. Education commences with the 
child, and never ends — they have no assigned periods of ed- 
ucation. As soon as a child is well on his feet and gets a 
glance of an alphabet the letters are indelibly fixed in his mem- 
ory, and he is prepared to arrange them in any form of com- 
position and proceed to scientific attainments. All memories 
are infallible, and the acquisition of knowledge is easy and 
rapid. The leaders or teachers are exact in the acquisition of 
knowledge, proceeding always under the immediate guidance 
of the Spirit of all Truth, and consequently never learn any 
error, and never teach any. As they advance in knowledge, 
new fields of scientific investigation open before their de- 
lighted minds, and fill them with holy rapture as they con- 
template the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Almighty 



268 TEE TEEE OF LIFE. 

Maker and Governor of the universe, displayed in his ways 
and works. 

With regard to the social relations of the people of re- 
generated Oberlin, they are " first pure, then peaceable, 
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good 
fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." 

In short, they are at home in their Father's house, where 
light, and love, and knowledge abound ; where it is easy to 
distinguish between truth and error ; to know what is right, 
and to do it. Numerically, the sexes are just equal. They 
pair early, and every man has his own wife, and every 
woman has her own husband, and they have a numerous off- 
spring : " And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and 
girls playing in the streets thereof." There are no old bach- 
elors or old maids there. They are regular in all their hab- 
its, and systematic in their business affairs. The toil and 
drudgery of labor "in the sweat of the face" are known only 
in history. And many kinds of business common in former 
days are dispensed with. They have no butchers' stalls and 
meat markets to maintain ; no lawyers, doctors, or ministers 
to support, or any class of salaried men; no apothecary 
shops, grocers, confectioners, bakers, mercantile houses, or 
buying and selling of any description ; no banks, life and 
fire insurance business to conduct, or any kind of book- 
keeping to attend to. The amount of manual labor which 
they have to perform is but pastime to them ; for all are 
workers, adroit workers, with no lack of well-drilled muscu- 
lar energy, highly improved mechanism, and thoroughly 
trained steam or other power to aid them in their manual 
labor enterprises. They want no expensive ceiled houses in 
which to enervate themselves ; nor costly furniture, nor dress, 
for aristocratic display. They are plain and simple in their 
attire for the sake of convenience, elegance, and health. 
The fine arts are brought to perfection ; and they are neat 
and tasty in all that they do. They take especial pains in 



FHYSICAZ DEGEXERACY. 269 

laying out their grounds, and in cultivating fruits and flow- 
ers. They are all expert scientific botanists, and can give 
you the name and characteristic habits of every plant and 
flower at sight. The soil has been rendered innately and in 
perpetuity rich and fertile, and instinctively hostile to weeds 
and all manner of noxious plants. It is proof against 
mildew, blight, the weevil, and all depredating insects. 
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he 
shall not destroy the fruits of your ground ; neither shall 
your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith 
the Lord." 

We will now lay aside our optic glasses, and take a com- 
mon sight view of Oberlin as it is at present, and then re- 
sume the apocalyptic view of it, which will enable us to 
judge correctly of the relative merits of the two conditions. 
We need not be detained here long, for, excepting the larger 
proportion of common Christianity for which I have given 
Oberlin credit, she does not differ essentially in the main 
features of her general policy, and its results in practice, 
from other orderly communities. Competition in business is 
as brisk, eagle-eyed, and clutching here as in other places. 
The arts of trade and dodges that are common in the neigh- 
boring towns are well understood and imitated here : " Sell- 
ing out at cost ;" pompous advertisements in grand, open, 
display columns in newspapers, etc. Commodities are brought 
into the place, and sold with reference to the pockets of the 
traders, rather than from regard to the health and happiness 
of the purchasers. Our professional men are no more averse 
to accepting good fat salaries and fees than professional 
men in Cleveland and Elyria are. Our farmers inquire 
where they can get the highest price for their wool, wheat, 
cheese, and whatever they have to dispose of, with the com- 
mon avidity of other farmers. Mechanics and day-laborers 
are not satisfied with less wages than are paid to the same 
class of men in adjoining towns. Capitalists are careful to 



270 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

invest their means where they will be the most remunerative 
in a worldly point of view. This is all a necessity under the 
sway of the inequality principle. To get up in the world is 
a prime object. Those who have attained to the highest po- 
sition and rank in society are — by a law of inequality pro- 
gress — increasingly eager to get up higher. And all below 
are scrambling to get as far up the ascent of worldly pros- 
perity and consideration as they can. 

Of course, this policy or mode of life creates and main- 
tains much disparity among the families of the community 
in the means of subsistence, education, social pleasures, and, 
consequently, in development of body and intellect. While 
some will necessarily be rich, a considerable portion of the 
community must be poor, or more or less straitened in their 
circumstances. And the rich have their share of perplexing 
cares and corroding anxieties ; and as all are participants 
to about an equal extent in the common dietetic habits 
of the world at large, they are sharers together in the 
common doom of " infant of days," general prevalence of 
bodily diseases, and the usual short average of life. Such 
is unavoidably the result of the inequality principle in prac- 
tice. 

There are two, and but two principles by which people can 
be governed in their commercial intercourse. And but one 
of these can be made a governing power at a time, for they 
are as immiscible as oil and water. One is the Gospel or 
Christian principle, which assumes, with all confidence and 
fidelity, that God is the author and proprietor of man and 
property, and that brethren of a common parentage should 
be joint and equal inheritors of the bounties of Provi- 
dence, and feel it to be a duty and privilege to devote their 
joint energies, mental and physical, as a mutual benefit 
association, for the promotion of the happiness of each and 
all. 

The other principle is the common, wordly, inequality one, 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 271 

which makes ic the duty, or imperious necessity, for every 
individual to look out for " number .one." Those vrho have 
the best skill for driving a bargain, or the most popular tal- 
ent for commanding large audiences, will get the most money, 
and make what use they please of it. The gospel policy 
may be perverted, abused, and made to appear ridiculous 
and odious ; but it is the only one on which holiness can be 
perfected. Christianity may be infused into a community 
that is founded on the worldly principle, after the tradition 
of men, to a definite extent ; but incompatibility precludes 
all rational hope of a perfect state of society being effected 
on such a basis. Oberlin has tried the experiment, and 
has furnished demonstrative proof that if she were to con- 
tinue on through all time on her present line of policy she 
would get no nearer perfection than she is now. 

And what encouragement can there be for any association 
of persons to attempt hereafter to perfect humanity on a sim- 
ilar foundation ? It is difficult to conceive how any commu- 
nity could engage in a like enterprise, on a similar basis, un- 
der more favorable auspices, whether regard be had to the 
qualifications of the persons engaged in the undertaking, 
mentally, morally, and physically ; to the location of the col- 
ony ; thoroughness of consecration to the work ; fidelity and 
unflinching zeal in the prosecution of it, and a favoring Prov- 
idence. And now, after thirty-four years of unexampled out- 
ward prosperity, and an unbroken series of success in every 
thing that Oberlin has set her hands to on the duplex policy 
of benevolence and selfishness, or Christianity and worldli- 
ness, the world claims a full moiety of the results ; and it has 
so indelibly stamped its image and superscription upon them, 
that, as poor, dwarfed, distorted, blighted, limping, agonized 
humanity casts a longing and half-despairing glance over the 
record, she is constrained to reiterate the old and bitter cry : 
" How long ? oh, how long ? how long ?" 

The two antipodal principles of selfishness and benevolence, 



272 THE TREE OF LIFE. 



on which the Oberlin Colony undertook to rear a perfect 
Christianity, were singularly combined and as singularly ex- 
pressed in its early covenant : "We will hold and manage 
our estates personally, but pledge as perfect a community of 
interest as though we held a community of property." 

Put such a basis under the Temperance cause and it would 
read thus : " We will continue the common practice of using 
intoxicating liquors, and enjoy the exhilarating and cheering 
effects of their moderate use, but pledge as perfect a state of 
sobriety as if we were to adopt and practice the total absti- 
nence principle." Or give it a nautical aspect, and it would 
read after this manner : " We will continue to sail around 
the outskirts of the maelstrom, and indulge in the pleasant, 
fascinating hallucination of its extended revolving circles ; 
but pledge as perfect security against the engulfing influence 
of its converging and giddy whirls as though we were to 
keep at a respectful distance from its borders." 

We will now return in vision to the Edenic Oberlin, and 
wind up our comparative view of her distant and present as- 
pects. In this last edition of Oberlin, Christians have brought 
all the tithes into the storehouse, and proved the Lord there- 
with. They learned from God's word and providence that 
it would be wise and safe for them to commit their whole be- 
ing and effects into his hands, to be subject entirely to his 
control ; and, accordingly, they made the consecration without 
stint or reservation. 

And where understanding, will, and conscience took the 
lead, warm affection followed ; and they found it to be easy 
and delightful to love God with all the heart, soul, strength, 
and mind ; and to love each other as they loved themselves. 
And God, on his part, was true to his pledge, opened the 
windows of heaven and poured out blessings till there was 
no room for more. Of course, full perfection was the result ; 
for under such circumstances, no one would be satisfied with 
any thing short of having his whole " spirit, and soul, and 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 273 

body n put into a state of entire sanctincation. Since that 
crowning act of God's providence nothing has been withheld 
from them that conld in the remotest degree contribute to 
their happiness as perfected human beings. And do you in- 
quire when and why Oberlin wheeled into line, and started for 
the strait gate and narrow way, through which she passed to 
the land of Beulah ? About the year 1890, through the 
persistent permeation, and consequent irresistible pressure of 
cumulative reformatory influences coming in from various 
sources and operating on and through the minds of real " in- 
dependent thinkers," the stereotyped and semi-petrified in- 
crustation, which for an age or two had effectually suppressed 
all innovation that had not on its brow a full and clear im- 
press of the Oberlinean stamp, gave way, and let in such a 
flood of light that " the powers that be " saw distinctly, and 
admitted freely, that there was "rottenness in Denmark." A 
spirit of earnest and searching inquiry was aroused, and de- 
cisive and energetic measures of reform were entered upon. 
Salaries that had attained to an enormous height began to 
topple over and come down. Plethoric moneyed coffers threw 
open their portals and poured out their treasures like water. 
The poor, not merely church and town paupers, but all who 
were in straitened circumstances, were forthwith relieved and 
started on the ascent to a grand common level to be reached 
by the whole community. A professor of Hygiene,* one 

* In the fall of 1851, while a memher of the Board of Trust for Ober- 
lin College, at a joint meeting of the Trustees and Faculty of the insti- 
tution, convened especially for the occasion during Commencement week, 
when the Trustees were together in their official capacity, I urged the 
importance of having a professorship of Hygiene attached to the Col- 
lege, the duty of whose incumhent should he to look after the health of 
the students ; give instruction in regard to th#laws of life ; carefully su- 
pervise the exercise and diet of the students ; see that studies were not 
disproportioned to physical ahility ; and, in general, secure such a train- 
ing in all the departments of physical and mental culture, that it should 
come to he understood that education at Oberlin meant a thorough educ- 
12* 



274 TEE THEE OF LIFE. 

who understood and practiced the laws of life, was called in 
to preside over the sanitary interests of the community and 
College. A thorough overhauling was made in dietetic 
habits. Early attention was paid to the adjustment of female 
attire, as an absolute pre-requisite to a systematic course of 
culture and training adapted to bring on the desirable pro- 
phetic period, when " there shall be no more thence an infant 
of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days." Strict 
scrutiny was given to business affairs, and modes and quan- 
tity of study, to have them conform to gospel principle and 
physiological laws. 

In remodeling the affairs of the colony, close and very 
special attention was paid to children, to train them up in 
the way they should go, so that when, they advanced in life, 
they would not depart from it. For good habits when firmly 
fixed, are stronger than bad ones. The first endeavor was to 
imbue young susceptive minds with a true knowledge and love 
of their Creator and Redeemer, and acquaint them with 
their relation to God and the duties pertaining to that 
relation. Then, or conjointly with such instruction, give 
them a knowledge of themselves, their relation to each 
other and the world at large, and the duties which 
they owed to themselves, each other and the world. 
Great pains was taken to secure a strict observance of 
the second great command, in its broadest and largest 
sense. To love each other just as well and just as much 

ing of the whole "being, with the view of securing sound bodies for 
sound minds. And I offered to go out as their soliciting agent to raise 
money for the professorship endowment. The Hon. .Norton S. Town- 
shend, M. D., one of the Trustees, warmly commended the object, the 
joint meeting voted its approval, nem. con., and the Trustees passed a ■ 
resolution authorizing an# directing the Secretary to give me a commis- 
sion to solicit subscriptions for an endowment fund. But a prominent 
Trustee of controlling influence, who was out of the place at the time, 
and of course not at the meeting, on learning what had been done, in- 
terposed objections and had the arrangement set aside. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 275 

as they loved themselves. Never allow self to indulge 
in any preference for either substantial good, or for any 
amusement or petty gratification. To keep a strict guard 
over their feelings, thoughts, and actions, and at all times 
maintain a conscience void of offense toward God, each other, 
and toward all men. In regard to dietetic training, children 
were taught especially to avoid the use of all kinds of stimu- 
lants or excitants. Great stress was laid upon this particular 
duty. They were reminded of its importance when they 
lay down and when they rose up. Youth were familiar- 
ized with the fact that a good physical conscience was second 
only to a good moral conscience. That a pure state of the 
sensibility was the best safeguard to the reception of noxious 
substances into the system, as it would be sure to warn the 
transgressor of any violation of physiological law in this re- 
spect. A single particle of common pepper taken into a stom- 
ach well endowed with a correct physical conscience, will "bite 
like a serpent and sting like an adder." It is of the first 
importance, too, in the internal administration of the vital 
economy that the telegraphic nerves, which are exceedingly 
numerous and intricate, should be in a sound and healthy 
condition, that they may transmit intelligence and power 
promptly and correctly. Under such auspices, all the func- 
tions of the body are performed with freedom, efficiency, and 
an economical expenditure of power. 

On the subject of sexual intercourse the Oberlin reformers 
took a bold and peremptory stand. Here had been the 
Devil's stronghold, the very citadel of his empire on earth, 
and the reformers determined that whatever was satanic 
about the divine structure should be demolished and the 
foul fiend expelled from this coast. To do this " precept 
must be upon precept, precept upon precept ; line upon line, 
line upon line ; here a little, and there a little." 

The hearts of parents were turned to their children, and 
the hearts of children to their parents ; and parental and 



276 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

filial affection was strong, and filial obedience was perfect. 
A sic pater dixit, or a sic mater dixit — fatlier says so, or 
mother says so — was authority and motive enough for doing 
what ought to be done, and for leaving undone what ought 
not to be done. Youth were expected and encouraged to 
choose mates early; and at a proper time, and suitable pe- 
riods, signalized by natural law, they were to engage in pro- 
creative duty. 

Under a pure vegetarian system of diet, with appropriate 
exercise, mental and physical, the corporal structure became 
more consolidated and compact, with proportional greater 
power of endurance, and was longer in ripening, or reaching 
the puberal period, than under the old stimulating regimen, 
or hot-bed culture. 

As the people of Oberlin moved on in their new line of 
march, they met a smiling providence at every corner and 
stage of their progress. Soundness of body and vigor of 
health improved steadily and propitiously. As gospel faith 
and charity increased, selfishness faded out. Indeed, it was 
not long before the community settled down upon a full be- 
lief that the individual holding of property in exclusive right 
against the brotherhood was not Christ-like. And they had 
become possessed with a strong desire to be like Christ in all 
his imitable traits of character. The people lost entirely their 
anxiety about what they should eat and drink, and where- 
withal they should be clothed. Under a favoring prov- 
idence, it was easy for them to provide these things to their 
highest satisfaction. With an increase of strength and skill 
for labor, and a universal disposition and determination on 
the part of every individual to do his full proportion of work, 
which would not exceed two or three hours in the twenty- 
four, they could supply themselves with all the necessaries 
and conveniences of life, and consequently have much time 
for mental culture and social intercourse. Many new laborers 
were furnished by the abandonment of various occupations. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 277 

Lawyers and doctors were no longer needed in their profes- 
sional capacity. There were none to litigate, and there was 
no sickness. There was no longer any necessity for profes- 
sional teachers, for all were teachers as well as learners. 
Butchers, meat market-men, apothecaries, merchants, and 
others, were released from their several callings and entered 
cheerfully into the common field of labor and study. The 
theological school was closed, and a number of young men 
were drawn from this source to swell the amount of com- 
munity help. For it was seen to be sheer folly for young 
men to spend two or three years in learning the art of talk- 
ing about religion, when the whole thing " fitly framed to- 
gether," and drawn out in living characters " known and 
read of all men," was not only exceedingly beautiful and ir- 
resistibly attractive, but as simple as it was attractive. 

Renovated Oberlin sent out missionaries of a pure gospel 
stamp to unite with kindred missionaries from other places. 
These missionaries went forth in accordance with divine in- 
junction, providing neither gold, nor silver, nor brass for 
their purse, nor scrip for their journey ; trusting to the prom- 
ise, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world," for their s?^port ; and to the exemplification of the 
love of Christ shed abroad in the heart for their passport. 
The undiluted gospel which they carried forth — the Lord 
working with them mightily — commended itself to every 
man's conscience as being adapted to the elevation and hap- 
piness of the whole human race. Christ was "lifted up" so 
that he could draw all men unto him. 

The work of converting the world proceeded with advanc- 
ing railroad speed, until the glad tidings rolled the earth 
around, that the great rebellion was subdued. Satan was 
dethroned, and Christ's kingdom was established in the 
hearts and lives of all men, and his will was done on earth 
as it ever has been done in heaven. This briDgs us down, as 
you will see in the prophetic vision before us to the middle 



278 THE TREE OF LIFE. 

of the twenty-first century, when the millennial sun of 
righteousness with healing in his wings, has been fifty years 
above the horizon. Blissful period ! " Man's inhumanity to 
man " has come to a perpetual end ; and there is nothing to 
hurt or destroy, in all God's holy mountain. For "the earth 
is full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the 
sea." Every plant that was not of the heavenly Father's 
planting is rooted up. The whole human family is perfect, as 
their Father in heaven is perfect. And how simple the prin- 
ciple and process by which the grand consummation has been 
effected. Just passing over from the current of selfishness to 
the current of holiness, and flowing on its placid, peaceful 
bosom as gently as the planets move in their orbits. Simply 
getting right, the most lucid and natural position in the world, 
when rightly comprehended. Ceasing to do evil, and learn- 
ing to do well. Rendering obedience to law, which is easy and 
pleasant ; instead of violating it, which is hard and painful. 
Throwing off Satan's yoke, which is heavy, and his burden, 
which is grievous ; and putting on Christ's yoke, which is 
easy, and his burden, which is light. And now, indulgent 
reader, as we are about to separate, shall we not resolve that 
as for us, we will hanger and thirst after righteousness ? There 
is a right way. And there is but one right way. The en- 
trance to it is strait, and the way itself is narrow; but it is 
wide enough to give passage to every thing that is lovely and 
of good report. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 279 



Conclusion. 

" Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that 
getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better 
than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than 
fine gold. She is more precious than rubies; and all the 
things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. 
Length of days is in her right hand ; and in her left hand 
riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and 
all her paths are peace She is a tree of life to them that lay 
hold upon her ; and happy is every one that retaineth her." 



END OF THE TREE OP LITE. 




t* 



